Combining Irish and German social welfare record

TSQ

Have a couple of questions:
My relative worked for a few years in Germany in the 1980s. How does she track down her social welfare contributions from her German employment?

A) She has less than 10 years Irish employment needed to qualify for the Irish contributory state pension but if the German years were included then she would just about make it to 10 years. Could her Irish and German years of employment be combined to qualify for the minimum contributory pension?

A further complication: she is currently resident of the US and will receive a US contributory pension. If the answer to A above is generally yes, would that apply if she was not an Irish resident - i.e. could she live in the US and still apply to Ireland to have her Irish and German social welfare contributions combined in order to qualify for an Irish pension?

A bit complicated, but not an unusual situation I'm sure. The people in the Social Security dept in Waterford have already given incorrect information regarding another query and I have been told that they haven't a clue so don't feel there is any point in contacting them again.

Finally, anyone know how to locate German social security contributions ? She doesnt have her German tax number but am sure, with German efficiency, that won't pose a problem

Chieftain

TSQ wrote: »

Have a couple of questions:
My relative worked for a few years in Germany in the 1980s. How does she track down her social welfare contributions from her German employment?

A) She has less than 10 years Irish employment needed to qualify for the Irish contributory state pension but if the German years were included then she would just about make it to 10 years. Could her Irish and German years of employment be combined to qualify for the minimum contributory pension?

A further complication: she is currently resident of the US and will receive a US contributory pension. If the answer to A above is generally yes, would that apply if she was not an Irish resident - i.e. could she live in the US and still apply to Ireland to have her Irish and German social welfare contributions combined in order to qualify for an Irish pension?

A bit complicated, but not an unusual situation I'm sure. The people in the Social Security dept in Waterford have already given incorrect information regarding another query and I have been told that they haven't a clue so don't feel there is any point in contacting them again.

Finally, anyone know how to locate German social security contributions ? She doesnt have her German tax number but am sure, with German efficiency, that won't pose a problem

Regarding the contributions, her local social welfare office can request the contributions from Germany. Its a fairly common thing these days - they will be well used to doing it. I don't have a clue unfortunately how her living in the US will affect it

hawthorne

No problem combining your German and Irish contributions. I did it myself.
What you need is your German Social security number. It is a "must". Without it you are lost. No point asking Irish social welfare. They are a dead loss and don't know how to handle this.
You have to make an "Antrag auf Rentenkontenklaerung" in Germany. This can be done online:
https://www.deutsche-rentenversicherung.de/Allgemein/de/Inhalt/5_Services/04_formulare_und_antraege/01_versicherte/01_vor_der_rente/_DRV_Paket_Versicherung_Kontenklaerung.html

Unfortunately it takes ages. In my case it took 4 years to sort it out. That was in 2004. Since then I have clocked up more contributions and asked to include them in my German account.I have asked to do that in January this year - and it is still running. So you need a lot of patience.