It would be unusual that a person had a two year gap in their PRSI record caused solely by waiting for a decision on an application for carer’s allowance, as the average time to award carers allowance is approximately 25 weeks (at end December 2013).
Credited contributions (credits) are social insurance contributions which are awarded, under certain circumstances such as unemployment or illness, to an insured person without payment of a Pay Related Social Insurance (PRSI) contribution. Their purpose is to help protect the future social insurance entitlements of insured persons by providing cover during periods when paid PRSI contributions are not due.
Credited contributions alone will not suffice to qualify for a working age contributory, PRSI based payment, such as jobseeker’s benefit or illness benefit, which also include a requirement that a minimum number of paid contributions have also been received in respect of a specified period, regardless of the number of credited contributions awarded.
Also, as the Department’s schemes are contingency based, each has other criteria which must be met before a claim can be awarded and, in some instances, different criteria can make two schemes mutually exclusive. For instance, to qualify for a carer’s payment a person must be providing full time care, which would exclude that person from receipt of a jobseekers payment and from unemployment credits, for which they must be available for full time employment and genuinely seeking such work.
The Department’s social assistance schemes, such as jobseeker’s allowance, are based on a means test rather than on PRSI contributions, and a person may qualify for payment provided that they also satisfy all other conditions attached to the particular scheme.
The Deputy will be aware that a person who is under financial pressure while awaiting a decision on a social welfare application can apply for a supplementary welfare allowance payment, which is based on a means assessment and to which other conditions may also apply.
If the Deputy has a specific case in mind and he wishes to forward the details, I will have it examined by the Department.
