John Ellis
Ceist:58 Mr. Ellis asked the Minister for Social Welfare if he will arrange for the payment of a pension to a person (details supplied) in County Leitrim.
Written Answers. - Social Welfare Benefits.
The person concerned applied for an old age contributory pension on 5 December 1989. As he will not attain the age of 66 years until 18 October 1990 his claim was treated as an application for retirement pension which is payable at 65 years.
In order to qualify for a retirement pension it is necessary to have a minimum yearly average of at least 24 reckonable contributions recorded from 1953 or from date of entry into insurable employment, whichever is the later, up to the last contribution year before reaching pension age.
The person concerned is unable to supply an insurance number and it has not been possible to trace an insurance record for him in the Department. In any event, periods of employment quoted by the person concerned would not be sufficient to satisfy the qualifying contribution conditions for receipt of retirement pension. In the circumstances, his application for pension was rejected by a deciding officer on the grounds that he does not satisfy the contribution conditions.
A social welfare officer will visit the person concerned shortly to discuss his employment record in order to determine if contributions are due in respect of the employments specified by him. The officer will also attempt to establish whether the person concerned had any other employments which could be used to reach the minimum average condition. The claim to pension will be reviewed in the light of this investigation.
Paul Bradford
Ceist:59 Mr. Bradford asked the Minister for Social Welfare the number of social welfare contributions which have been credited to a person (details supplied) in County Cork.
The Department's records show that contributions were paid or credited on behalf of the person concerned from 1955 to 1969 and from 1985 to April 1989, the latest year for which records are available. Details of the contributions are shown on the following table.
|
Year |
Contributions paid |
Contributions credited |
|
1955 |
19 |
32 |
|
1956 |
52 |
|
|
1957 |
44 |
|
|
1958 |
51 |
1 |
|
1959 |
52 |
|
|
1960 |
52 |
|
|
1961 |
52 |
|
|
1962 |
50 |
3 |
|
1963 |
52 |
|
|
1964 |
51 |
|
|
1965 |
52 |
|
|
1966 |
50 |
2 |
|
1967 |
52 |
|
|
1968 |
53 |
|
|
1969 |
52 |
|
|
1985-86 |
32 |
|
|
1986-87 |
52 |
|
|
1987-88 |
52 |
|
|
1988-89 |
52 |