Illness Benefit/Invalidity Pension 3 years no stamps

Parnassia

Hi

A friend has been out of work (and paid no stamps) for three years. He quit work after a series of health problems, and sold his house, living on the proceeds.

Now, he would like to claim illness benefit or invalidity pension - his doctor has said he will sign him off on this, and that there is no point applying for disability allowance as he will not work again.

He has paid far more than the 260 payments required, but does not have the requisite 48 payments in the previous year, as he was obviously not working during this time.

Can he apply for either the benefit or the pension? Will there be a problem with the missing payments for the previous year?

cee_jay

For Illness Benefit, he needs 39 stamps paid or credited in 2007 (this will be 2008 come January). Otherwise, he needs to have paid 26 in 2006 and 26 in 2007.
If he does not have the above he won't qualify for payment from Social Welfare for Illness Benefit. As long as he is handing in his certs every week his claim will be kept open however, and he might qualify for payment (depending on his circumstances) from the Community Welfare Officer.

Invalidity Pension is a payment for people who are permanently incapable of work because of an illness or incapacity. Normally, you must be getting Illness Benefit for at least twelve months before you claim Invalidity Pension. It may be possible to get Invalidity Pension after a shorter period if you are unlikely to be able to work for the rest of your life because of your illness or disability.
To get Invalidity Pension you must have at least:

* 260 (5 years) paid contributions since entering social insurance
* 48 contributions paid or credited in the last complete tax year before the date of your claim
Again you need to have the above to qualify for payment.

There is nothing stopping him from applying but he might not get payment from these schemes.

Why is there no point in applying for disability allowance? Disability Allowance is if you have a disability that is expected to last for at least one year. To get the payment, you must satisfy a means test. You do not need a certain number of contributions to qualify.

Parnassia

Thanks for your reply.

It all seems a bit odd. He didn't want to claim initially, although I think he would have qualified, because he had some money from the sale of his house. So if he had claimed for the past three years, he would be on the invalidity pension by now, but because he didn't want to claim from the state while he could still support himself, now he's in difficulty?

If he gets disability allowance for a year or so, would this factor in as 'credits' for PRSI payments, to allow him to get onto illness benefit or invalidity pension?

His doctor told him there was little point in applying for the disability allowance as he will not work again; his health condition means that he cannot return to work, that will not change.

cee_jay

Parnassia wrote: »

Thanks for your reply.

It all seems a bit odd. He didn't want to claim initially, although I think he would have qualified, because he had some money from the sale of his house. So if he had claimed for the past three years, he would be on the invalidity pension by now, but because he didn't want to claim from the state while he could still support himself, now he's in difficulty?

If he gets disability allowance for a year or so, would this factor in as 'credits' for PRSI payments, to allow him to get onto illness benefit or invalidity pension?

His doctor told him there was little point in applying for the disability allowance as he will not work again; his health condition means that he cannot return to work, that will not change.

He may get credits from Disability Allowance, he will need to ring them to double check.
Disability Allowance is a long term payment so I am surprised the doctor said that.
As for not claiming, Illness Benefit and Invalidity pension are not means tested so money he had would not have come into the equation for receipt of either of those. You should always claim in case situations like this arise unfortunately Even if these situations do not arise, it all counts towards the state pension at the end of the day.