I propose to take Questions Nos. 11 and 12 together.
To qualify for an old age contributory pension a person must have entered insurance at least ten years before reaching pension age, have at least 156 contributions paid and have a yearly average of at least 20 contributions registered since January 1953 when the unified system of social insurance came into effect, or the time they started insurable employment, if later.
The purpose of these conditions is to ensure that entitlement to the pension is limited to those who have made a reasonable level of contributions to the social insurance fund during the course of their careers.
The yearly average condition has caused some difficulties for people with gaps in their insurance but in recent years I have taken measures to alleviate some of the anomalies caused by this.