A widow’s contributory pension is based on the social insurance record of either the person concerned or their late spouse. The two records cannot be combined when calculating entitlement.
Neither the person concerned nor their late spouse have sufficient social insurance contributions paid in Ireland to qualify them for a standard widow’s contributory pension. The person concerned was in receipt of a pro-rata widow’s contributory pension from July 1994 to November 2008. This pension was based on a combination of their late spouse’s Irish and UK social insurance contributions.
The person concerned relinquished this pension in November 2008 in favour of one parent family payment, which was payable at a higher rate. If the person concerned considers that they satisfy the conditions for receipt of widow’s contributory pension and wish to have their entitlement to pension re-examined, they should send their request in writing to Widow’s Contributory Pensions, Department of Social Protection, College Road, Sligo.
Alternatively, the person concerned can apply for a widow’s non-contributory pension, a means tested payment payable to widows aged under 66 years who do not have dependent children, and their entitlement will be examined.
Under social welfare legislation, a person in receipt of a contributory pension cannot concurrently receive a non-contributory pension. It is not possible to combine entitlements of both pension types.
