Entitled to a widows pension

naughtysmurf

Based on the following information, would my mother be entitled to a widows pension

Born in Ireland 1936

Emigrated to UK mid 1950’s & worked until mid 1960’s, stopped working once children arrived

Returned to Ireland early 1970’s, did not work outside the home

Husband passed away recently

Current monthly income is

£118.00 per week from UK, €391.00 goes into her account ( may be deductions on UK side? )

€518.44 half pension from semi state body that her husband worked for, super annuation fund, don’t think he paid a full stamp

Before he passed away he was also receiving €68.10 per week an unknown social welfare payment, this automatically stopped two weeks after passing.

Total monthly income €909.00 approx

Would she be entitled to a Widows pension, full or partial?

Thanks

mystic

Your mother may qualify for Widow's Contributory Pension (WCP) based on your late father's PRSI contributions.

It sounds like your late father was paying PRSI at Class B or D. WCP is a benefit/pension associated with Class B or D PRSI.

Have a look at this link and apply. https://www.gov.ie/en/service/apply-for-widowers-contributory-pension/#how-to-qualify

Purple Mountain

She should apply for a record of both his and her prsi contributions in Ireland. With this information, she can proceed better.

Newuser12345

This came up on the main page and my parents had a very similar setup including semi-state and having worked in England for years.

I took over all the paper work and it was painful

The advice above to get his record in the first instance is best way forward as it is unclear if he was entitled to contrib or non -contrib in your post

My mother was entitled to a Widows based on my fathers contribution - she was also entitled to Living alone and Household benefits- what I read at the time was that she was entitled to the highest level payment even though she had been non-contributory based on my father's contributions

We needed to notify UK and they cut off his payment at death of date but my mother was now entitled to a widows pension from there as well

Lastly the semi-states at the time had numerous ties-in with Credit unions, health insurers etc so she should check if there is any funeral payments from them or at least remove him from premiums- Normally the semi-states will have someone who will sit down and walk through her entitlements with her

naughtysmurf

Thanks. Yes pretty similar, I’m also doing all the paperwork, I feel your pain. This is the only outstanding issue

The UK were notified six days after death & that end of it is sorted, the €391.00 from the UK she receives is higher than what she was previously getting from the UK, they cancelled my fathers payments obviously & increased hers as a widow. The UK were easy actually, one phone call sorted it, had a client ID for my father, didn’t even request a death certificate just answered a couple of security questions, my mother’s phone number for example,

my father along with his UK pension & semi state pension was also receiving a small social welfare payment, less than €70.00 weekly, I’m guessing this was to make up any potential shortfall possibly between what he was receiving & a full contributory Irish pension maybe, neither of them really remembered where it was coming from, my father retired in 2000 so was a while ago. This payment stopped automatically two weeks after he died, no written notice just spotted in the bank statement

Newuser12345

I would also suggest understanding the Revenue situation - most income is taxable and the pensions would be assessable for tax-

I would review your late fathers revenue record or last payslip and see if he was paying tax via his pension. His representative will need to file a tax return for last year and this year

If over 66 no PRSI is applicable nor is USC if non social income is less than 13000

Last year they should have received 3300 personal tax credit and 1650 employee tax credit and one age tax credit of 490.

Your mother would have also been also be entitled to a partial employee tax credit on account of a UK social pension

On the year of death she would have your late fathers tax credits, her own and should have age tax credit, her own partial Employee Tax credit- next year onwards- it will change again but it is unlikely she will have a tax bill