Ceist:
385 Dr. Upton asked the Minister for Social, Community and Family Affairs if a person (details supplied) in Dublin 12 is entitled to a full pension. [25113/00]
Written Answers. - Pension Provisions.
The person concerned is currently in receipt of a retirement pension at a reduced personal rate of £94.10 per week. The maximum rate of retirement pension is £96 per week.
One of the conditions for receipt of this pension at the maximum rate is that a person must have a yearly average of at least 48 social insurance contributions paid or credited over his or her working life i.e. from 1953, (or the date of entry into insurable employment, if later, to the end of the tax year before he or she reaches age 65. A reduced personal rate of pension of £94.10 per week applies where the yearly average is between 24 and 47.
According to my Department's records, the person concerned entered into insurable employment in 1958. Over the 27 year period from 1958 to April 1985, i.e. the end of the tax year before he reached age 65, he recorded a total of 655 reckonable contributions. This gives a yearly average of 24 which qualifies him for the reduced rate of pension he is currently receiving.
There is no record of contributions paid in respect of the person in question for the period 1961-62 to 1974-75. Prior to April 1974, non-manual employees were not liable to pay social insurance contributions, where their earnings exceeded a specified remuneration limit. This earnings limit was abolished with effect from 1 April 1974.
If the person concerned is currently residing alone, he may qualify for a living alone allowance of £6 per week from my Department. In that event he should advise the Department and arrangements will be made to pay this allowance to him. When he reaches age 80 in March 2001, an age-related increase of £5 per week will be paid to him.
Michael Ring
Ceist:386 Mr. Ring asked the Minister for Social, Community and Family Affairs if he will extend the pre-1953 pro rata contributory old age pension to cover civil service and health board employees who would have only paid a partial contribution during their pre-1953 employment years. [25119/00]
In the last two budgets I have introduced measures to ease the position of two particular groups of people who could not qualify for an old age contributory pension under the standard qualifying conditions. These included firstly a limited number of self employed people who were already over 56 years of age when compulsory social insurance was introduced for the self employed in 1988, and secondly people with appropriate contributions paid prior to 1953 who cannot satisfy the normal yearly average test. In both cases 260 paid contributions at the appropriate rate are required to qualify for a pension of 50% of the maximum personal rate. Any further move in this regard must be viewed in a budgetary context.
Austin Deasy
Ceist:387 Mr. Deasy asked the Minister for Social, Community and Family Affairs if he will introduce a pro rata pension to those who commenced payment of the self employed PRSI contributions in 1998 based on the number of years of contribution so that people with more than five years contributions and less than ten years are paid accordingly; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [25224/00]
Since April 1999 a special old age contributory pension has been available to those self employed people who were aged 56 or over in April 1988 and who have, at least, five years contributions paid since then. Payment is at a flat rate of 50% of the standard maximum rate with equivalent increases for adult and child dependants, where applicable.
This special arrangement more than complies with this Government's pre-election commitment to ease the position of people who narrowly failed to qualify for a pension and represents a positive and reasonable response to the situation in which this group of people found themselves and I have no plans to make further changes.