Dáil Éireann Debate, Wednesday - 19 January 2022
877. Deputy Claire Kerrane asked the Minister for Social Protection further to Parliamentary Question No. 160 of 20 October 2021, the number of full rate State pension (contributory) approved in each year before 2010 by contribution rate category in tabular form. [62992/21]
View answerFurther to Parliamentary Question 51529/21, my Department's officials have further investigated the availability of the data on historical PRSI contributions that would be needed to produce a breakdown by PRSI contribution level of State Pension (Contributory) claims for people who retired prior to 2010.
I can confirm to the Deputy that the relevant data is not available, and hence the table requested cannot be provided.
The data gap arises because, in general, the Department’s information systems only include PRSI contribution data for years from 1979 onwards, whereas a significant share of the lifetime PRSI contributions made by a person who retired in any year prior to 2010 is likely to have been made in years before 1979.
For example, a person who reached State Pension Age in 2009 would have been 16 years old in 1959. Any contributions that person made from age 16 to age 35 will have been recorded only on paper files, rather than on electronic information systems.
These paper records have been destroyed for State Pension (Contributory) claimants who attained State Pension Age prior to 2006 and who died more than 10 years ago.
Thus, any breakdown of State Pension (Contributory) claims by PRSI contribution class produced using the available electronic data would materially understate the level of PRSI contributions made by people who retired prior to 2010.
