SPECIAL OLD AGE (CONTRIBUTORY) PENSION FOR PERSONS WHO WORKED IN IRELAND

DID YOU PAY SOCIAL INSURANCE BEFORE 1953?

IF SO YOU MAY BE ENTITLED TO THIS NEW PENSION

Last year the Irish Minister for Social, Community and Family Affairs, Mr Dermot Ahern T.D. introduced a special half-rate Old Age (Contributory) Pension for people who paid social insurance prior to 1953 in Ireland.

To receive this pension you must:

be aged 66 or over and
have 260 weeks full-rate social insurance contributions paid, made up solely of contributions paid before 1953 or a mixture of contributions paid before and after 1953.

AMOUNT OF PENSION

This pension is payable up to a maximum personal rate of IR£53 (€67.30) per week. If you have a dependent spouse/partner you will receive more.

If you do not satisfy condition 2 above, you may qualify for a reduced rate of pension under EU regulations. If you paid a total of 260 contributions In Ireland and another EU country, one of which must have been paid before 1953. The 260 contributions must include at least 52 weeks of reckonable Irish insurance.

This pension is not payable in addition to any other Irish Social Welfare pension.

HOW TO APPLY

As EU regulations on social security require that your pension claim be made through the social security authority of the country in which you reside, you should contact:

Overseas Pension Group, International Pensions Office, Tyneview Park, Newcastle on Tyne, England NE98 1BA.

Tel: 0191 21 87777 / 87878 9.00am to 4.00pm Monday to Friday.

International Pensions Office will issue you with claim forms to complete and return to them. They will then forward the claim to Ireland.

NOTE: If you are already in receipt of a U.K. Pension it will not be necessary to forward your Birth/Marriage Certificates with your completed forms.

Southwark Irish Pensioners Project

19 Spa Road London SE16 3SA