Parents Pension

studdlymurphy

Hi all,
My parents are both nearing retirement age and I was looking at the state pension for my mother to try to answer some of her questions but then found out that she is not likely to get alot if any at all. Here are the details.
My father is a farmer (a very small farmer) with a very low income so low infact that he is not in the tax bracket. My mother does not work she is a house wife. When I looked at the state pension it is split into contributary and non-contributary so they would be non-contributary which means they would be means tested so the land value would essentially kill their pension from what I understand?
The way I see it is that if they were to contribute they would be included in the contributary pensions. My question is how long do you need to be contributing to qualify for the contributary state pension?
At the moment they are 64 and 62

Thanks for any help given its very much appreciated.

Nolanger

Is your dad on Farm Assist and receiving credits? That could qualify him for a contributory pension?

studdlymurphy

Nolanger wrote: »

Is your dad on Farm Assist and receiving credits? That could qualify him for a contributory pension?

They are not on farm assist or receiving credits. I have since found out that they needed to be contributing for 10 years leading to pension age so starting to contribute is out of the question. Is there any other options that they have? Has anybody gone through this before that can offer any advice?

Pharaoh1

If your father has been engaged in the business of farming did he make tax returns on a regular basis?
If he did and even if he was not liable for tax he would have been required to make the minimum self employed prsi payment each year. I think it is approx 250 euro per annum.
If he had sufficient contributions this would qualify him for the contributory pension.

studdlymurphy

Pharaoh1 wrote: »

If your father has been engaged in the business of farming did he make tax returns on a regular basis?
If he did and even if he was not liable for tax he would have been required to make the minimum self employed prsi payment each year. I think it is approx 250 euro per annum.
If he had sufficient contributions this would qualify him for the contributory pension.

Thanks Pharoah he had an accountant looking after everything for him who had him coming in under the tax bracket each year. If he was required to make PRSI payments then they should have been looking after this for him? Is that by law?
Im going to go in with him to the accountant next week so I would like to know the ins and outs of what they should have been doing for him by law.

Pharaoh1

If you look at the welfare.ie site (see link below) it seems to confirm what I thought.
If his annual income was over the amount specified then he should have been paying Class S.
He should have copies of his accounts/tax returns from the accountant and these should include all payments made including PRSI


http://www.welfare.ie/EN/Topics/PRSI/Pages/selfemployed.aspx

studdlymurphy

Pharaoh1 wrote: »

If you look at the welfare.ie site (see link below) it seems to confirm what I thought.
If his annual income was over the amount specified then he should have been paying Class S.
He should have copies of his accounts/tax returns from the accountant and these should include all payments made including PRSI


http://www.welfare.ie/EN/Topics/PRSI/Pages/selfemployed.aspx

Thanks again Pharaoh, Looking at it the threshhold is 3k so if you earn over this you must pay PRSI? I think there must have been PRSI paid as he is earning more than that. Ill see next week.

cee_jay

Your father can request a copy of his contributions to see what he has paid at https://www.welfare.ie/EN/Secure/Pages/RequestAcopyOfYourSIContributionsRecord.aspx

studdlymurphy

It looks like my father will now be fine as he has been paying the PRSI well the accountant has been doing it for him.
Now what way is my mothers situation she has not worked as long as I remember so has no PRSI payments does this mean she will be means tested or is there some other way for her to go about it?
The problem is is that if she is means tested the land comes into effect and she will get little or nothing?

cee_jay

When your father can claim his Contributory Pension, he can get paid for your mother as a qualified adult on his claim.

studdlymurphy

Thanks Cee_Jay do you have any idea what that would amount to? would it be anywhere near the pension rate?

Kristopherus

State Pension (Contributory) payment in 2010:
PRSI Contributions Rate per week Increase for a Qualified Adult (under 66) Increase for a Qualified Adult (aged 66 and over)
48 or over €230.30 €153.50 €206.30
20 - 47 €225.80 €153.50 €206.30
15 - 19 €172.70 €115.10* €154.70*
10 - 14 €115.20 €76.80* €103.20*
*Qualified adult rates apply to claims made from 6 April 2001.

The above is from the www.welfare.ie website.

mrsbyrne

the maximum rate of contributory pension qualified adult is 206euro, but your mother will be means-tested for this. the simplest thing to do is to complete the application form http://www.welfare.ie/EN/Forms/Documents/spt-spc1.pdf fill in all mothers details, attach necessary documentation and pop it in the post about 9 weeks before his birthday. in my experience accountants are no good at this, they take too long, cant tell the truth, send it to the wrong department and charge you a packet for the privilege. so, you dad and mam sit down together and get it done. honestly, its not rocket science. your mam can opt to get any payment she maybe entitled to paid into her bank a/c, or collect in the PO or she may opt to have your dad collect the lot. they each need to sign and date it. its well worth crossing the t's and dotting the i's so that the Dept. can process the claim as quickly as possible.if they're not happy with the dept. decision they can appeal it, when they get the pension they may be able to apply for free electricity units, tv licence etc depending on circumstances. good luck.

studdlymurphy

Thanks for all the info I appreciate it