Pension question

pummice

Anyone know what the state pension age was in the Irish Free State in 1930?

And is there any of finding out if there was a pension application made in that year be a family member?

pinkypinky

It was 70 when first introduced. At some stage in the 1970s, it was dropped to 66.
That's a good question.

P10 of this document gives the following summary

The Irish state pension – or social welfare pension –
comprises the first pillar of the Irish pensions system. The
state pension, then called the old age pension, dates from
the Old Age Pensions Act of 1908, when the British
Chancellor of the Exchequer, David Lloyd-George,
introduced a means-tested, tax-financed state pension for
those aged over 70 years (Murray, 1980). In 1924, the new
Free State government cut the old age pension and tightened
some of the conditionality attached to receiving the pension
(McCashin, 2005: 95; O’Gr, 151-152). The pension cut
was reversed in 1928, and from 1932 the means test became
less onerous – indeed the Local Government Department in
practice relaxed the means-test, much to the chagrin of the
Department of Finance - with the removal of the ‘benefit and
privilege’ clause and the Poor Relief disqualification.

pinkypinky

What are you hoping to find out from it? Maybe it's available on other documentation.

tabbey

The pension age in Ireland (Republic) was 70 until 1973, when it was reduced, a year at a time over four years to 66 by 1977. This was part of the 14 point programme agreed by Fine Gael  & Labour, and implemented by the government led by Liam Cosgrave and Brendan Corish.
In the UK, including Northern Ireland, the pension age had been lowered long previously. After the war, Churchill made the pension available to women at 60, as a token of appreciation for their industrial and war work during 1939-45.

tabbey

pummice wrote: »

 is there any of finding out if there was a pension application made in that year be a family member?

National Archives of Ireland have records of the Department of Social Welfare, it's predecessors and successors, but what they contain, I do not know.
Personally I think such documents should be preserved, even with restrictions on access, but somehow I suspect that might be over optimistic.

pummice

Thanks folks for your replies