illness benefit and contributor pension

wpd

Hi i am on long term illness benefit and am looking at my state pension

so my understanding is i need over 520 contributions to qualify which i have easily from when working however i then see that the amount of payment is affected by average contribution per year.
I am now in mid 50s and have a medical condition so cant work and am on illness benefit so am now worried that my average contribution will fall in the period from now to retirement age as not making a contribution

Sorry for long rant my questions are
1. can i pay voluntary contributions to maintain the average
2. does claiming illness benefit count towards contributions??

thanks for reading and all help and advice greatly appreciated

hawthorne

wpd wrote: »

Hi i am on long term illness benefit and am looking at my state pension

so my understanding is i need over 520 contributions to qualify which i have easily from when working however i then see that the amount of payment is affected by average contribution per year.
I am now in mid 50s and have a medical condition so cant work and am on illness benefit so am now worried that my average contribution will fall in the period from now to retirement age as not making a contribution

Sorry for long rant my questions are
1. can i pay voluntary contributions to maintain the average
2. does claiming illness benefit count towards contributions??

thanks for reading and all help and advice greatly appreciated

You can pay voluntary contributions if you fulfil certain conditions. Check this out:
https://www.citizensinformation.ie/en/social_welfare/irish_social_welfare_system/social_insurance_prsi/voluntarysocialinsurancecontributions.html

I would not worry about the average contribution thing. The pension system is getting changed and the average system is well and truly gone by the time you reach pension age. The new system is the total contribution approach- you have to have 2080 PRSI contributions by the time you go on the pension. You get up to 10 years credits for times of unemployment or illness. That means you are ok if you already have 1560 PRSI contributions paid in.

Yes- claiming IB gives you every week one credited contribution.

https://www.citizensinformation.ie/en/social_welfare/social_welfare_payments/older_and_retired_people/state_pension_contributory.html#:~:text=Using%20the%20TCA%2C%20you%20will,40%20years%27%20of%20employment).