Vol. 554 No. 5
1695 Mr. Ring asked the Minister for Social and Family Affairs the number of people refused a retirement pension or the old age contributory pension based on contributions paid when they had 156 but not 260, since 6 April; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [16227/02]
1696 Mr. Ring asked the Minister for Social and Family Affairs the steps which were taken to make people aware of the changes in the social insurance contribution conditions, introduced on 6 April, for the retirement pension and old age contributory pension. [16228/02]
1697 Mr. Ring asked the Minister for Social and Family Affairs when the social insurance contribution conditions for the retirement pension and old age contributory pension were changed from 156 to 260; and his views on whether this should have started for people in first employment rather than affecting those who are now of the age that they cannot get employment. [16229/02]
1698 Mr. Ring asked the Minister for Social and Family Affairs her plans to allow those who reached 65 or 66 years of age from 6 April to make up high rate voluntary contributions to the required number of 260 to qualify for a retirement pension and old age contributory pension. [16230/02]
I propose to take Questions Nos. 1695 to 1698, inclusive, together.
To qualify for an old age contributory or retirement pension a person must, inter alia, have a minimum number of paid social insurance contributions and achieve a minimum yearly average contribution rate over their working lives.
The National Pensions Board, in its final report in 1993, recommended that the number of paid contributions required to qualify for retirement and old age contributory pensions should be increased to 520 contributions. It also recommended that this should be phased in over a seven year period.
Legislation introduced in 1997 by the Fine Gael-led Government provided for the introduction of this increased requirement in two phases, an increase to 260 contributions from 2002 and 520 contributions from 2012. At the same time the annual average contribution rate required for a minimum old age contributory pension was reduced from 20 contributions to ten. Voluntary contributions may count towards the average contributions test but they cannot be used to satisfy the minimum paid requirement.
The changes in contribution requirements have been publicised and included in specific information publications dealing with pensions since 1997. They are also available on my Department's website.
The original requirement for 156 paid contributions was set in a context where social insurance cover was not as comprehensive as it is today and where income limits had the effect of excluding people from coverage from to time to time. Given the changes in social insurance coverage which have occurred over the past 30 years and which ensure that almost all workers are now covered for contributory pensions, it is considered that a minimum requirement of 260, or five years paid contributions, is a reasonable qualifying condition.
Of 19,500 applications for old age contributory and retirement pensions decided in the period April to August, 111 applicants of the total who reached aged 65 or 66 on or after 6 April had their claim rejected by virtue of not having 260 contributions paid. It is not known how many of those disallowed would have had 156 contributions paid.
