EU pro rata pension and medical card

hawthorne

I will be applying for my pension in a few weeks time. I will be applying for a EU pro rata pension. This means I will get a portion of the Irish contributory pension paid by the DoSP onto my account. It won't be the full contributory pension. I get the other half of the EU pro rata pension paid onto my account by the department of welfare of another EU country. Both pension bits combined give me about 50 euros more than I get at the moment on IB.

My IB payment is above the treshhold of Euro 298. I would not be entitled to a card if these Euro 298 would be coming from employment. At the moment my wife and I qualify only for a medical card because this social welfare payment is the only income we have. This is in line with the HSE policy for medial card assessments:

Quote: "If all of your income comes from social welfare payments, you will get a Medical Card even if your income is above the income threshold."

Question: Will the HSE consider only my Irish pension part as a SW payment and see the foreign pension part as an additional income? Means: I will be over the treshold for good and loose my card. Or will they recognize both parts as one social welfare income and leave us the card?

The HSE will not answer my question. They say it is a theoretical one at the moment and they will decide when I go on the pension.

zell12

It is not clear how the Dept interprets EU guidelines. Read up on (EC) Regulation 1408/71. Get all your docs lined up as well, poof of income etc.