Vol. 445 No. 6
162 Ms F. Fitzgerald asked the Minister for Social Welfare the approximate number of women who find they are ineligible for a contributory old age pension by virtue of the fact that they have gaps in their employment arising from the fact that they withdrew from the workforce to care for their family and now do not have the required average of 20 social welfare payments per year; and the approximate cost to the Exchequer of correcting this anomaly. [200/94]
I have introduced special arrangements designed to ensure that homemakers do not suffer a loss of pension entitlement because of time spent full time at home looking after a child, or caring full time for an elderly or incapacitated person.
From 6 April 1994, time spent working in the home rearing young children up to six years of age or caring for incapacitated people will be disregarded in determining entitlement to contributory old age pension. A maximum of 20 years may be disregarded.
No statistics are available on the number of women who failed to qualify for a contributory old age pension due to gaps in their employment arising from time spent as homemakers and accordingly it is not possible to estimate costings in this regard. However, adult dependant allowances would be payable in respect of the vast majority of these women. These allowances currently amount to 72 per cent of the personal rate where adult dependant is aged over 66.
