Mayo TD urges returned Irish immigrants to check UK pension entitlements

MAYO Fine Gael TD Alan Dillon has urged people who have worked in England to ensure they don’t lose out on a special concession to top up their UK pensions.

Deputy Dillon said there are hundreds of Mayo people who have worked in Britain over the past 20 years.

“I want to ensure that those who travelled to live and work in England before they returned home to Ireland avail of the opportunity to boost their pensions by adding extra years,” said Deputy Dillon.

“However, there is a time limit for people who worked and paid social insurance to add up to 16 extra years to their UK pension before July 31 next.”

He explained: “People without a full National Insurance (NI) record of pension payments in the UK are not entitled to a full state pension, but they can pay voluntary contributions to rectify this.

“Under the UK system, people are normally allowed pay for a maximum of six historic years missing from their NI record. NI is the equivalent of PRSI here. This could be because they did not work in the UK in those years because they left the country.”

Anyone whose qualifying years straddles pre and post-April 2016 will have a hybrid state pension entitlement consisting of the old and new state pensions. This means people can pay for a maximum of 16 historical years (2006/07 to 2021/22) missing from their NI record.

Said Deputy Dillon: “I am urging anyone who worked in England and has since returned to Ireland to avail of this opportunity and contact the International Pension Centre in the UK.”