Farmers and their spouses continue to lose out on entitlements they are due. Last April, I featured a case where a farmer had received a cheque for €30,000 in respect of arrears of pension entitlement due for 2010 to 2015.

The situation was sent to me by Noel Leahy, from Donohill, Co Tipperary. I have featured Noel and the work he has done before on the Money Mentor pages. Noel started out just helping a few people locally on their application. Encouraged by demand after articles in these pages, he launched a private service to assist people with claims, especially where they have missed out in the past.

I asked Noel to keep me informed on the types of cases he was dealing with. Last week, he sent me examples of some of the situations he has helped. The top eight of the biggest cases he has dealt with resulted in a massive €180,000 in arrears and the people receiving an additional €800 a week between them.

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There were also many other cases where smaller amounts were received and many who, after reading the articles, were able to look into making claims themselves. People can go directly to Social Welfare Office and also to the Citizen’s Advice, which have good information, and they can be helped free of charge.

Widower’s pension

The biggest claims were cases involving widower’s pension for people who were born between April 1927 and April 1932. Pay Related Social Insurance (PRSI) contributions for old-age pensions started in 1988. It meant that they had less than 10 years’ contributions paid when they reached retirement age of 66.

Because 10 years of contributions were needed for a full pension, the farmers were only given half the contributory pension of just €115 a week. However, when their spouses died it meant the farmer was entitled to a full widower’s pension of €230 a year. They did not realise they were eligible for it.

One farmer got €75,000 in arrears and another €61,000. Both increased their weekly pension from €115 to €230 a week going forward. Changes to previous claims since 2012 means that if you turned 66 after that year you will only get six months in arrears if you were found to have been entitled to a pension and did not receive it.

Small claims add up

One 80-year-old woman who had been getting €219 on the non-contributory widow’s pension saw her pension increase to €239 but got the mistake backdated to 13/10/2006. She received €5,000 in arrears.

Checked PRSI records

One farmer who investigated his PRSI records found not all were recorded properly. He was allowed one year additional contributions and was able to pay for contributions for another. This increased his average, lifting his pension from €115 to €172 per week. He also got arrears back to 2010 of €14,000.

Wrong pension applied for

One women, who was 66 in 2014, mistakenly applied for non-contributory pension and received €142 a week based on the means test. She should have applied for a contributory pension. She now gets €230 a week, as she had full contributions, and also received €5,000 in arrears.

No pension

One farmer aged 88 simply thought he didn’t qualify for any pension. His wife died 10 years ago. He now has secured €249.30 and got a refund of €3,800. This was six months in arrears, as he had not applied before.

PRSI records

One women had applied for pension to discover she had only 513 contributions. This was just seven short of the 520 required. However, she had worked in an office almost 40 years ago from April to December, but no stamps had been paid. Social welfare investigated the matter and allowed the 37 contributions for that period. She now has €97 a week going forward.

Homemaker’s scheme

One woman received a pension of €92 a week in 2014. Noel queried the homemaker’s element of her PRSI record. She increased her yearly averaged from the band 10-14 to 15-19 weeks. This resulted in a pension increase to €150 a week.

Noel has found a number of cases where farmers’ wives did not get the benefit of the homemaker’s scheme. This scheme provides that contribution years spent working in the home while caring, on a full-time basis, for a child up to 12 years of age or an incapacitated person age 12 or over are disregarded in calculating a person’s yearly average number of contributions. This can be up to 20 years. By checking PRSI records, he has dealt with cases where pensions have increase between €11 and €58 a week

“This is becoming much more important now that the old-age pension is divided up into six bands. Disregarding the years under the homemaker’s scheme could help someone get into a higher band, which would be worth a lot over their lifetime,” said Noel. “Getting an extra €10 a week might not seem much but can add up to a lot if you live until you’re 90 years old,” he said.

The other route some farmers have gone to get backdated PRSI contributions involves their wife being set up in a partnership, retrospectively. Noel has successful dealt with a number of these cases, and while it is possible, he finds them difficult to get through as there are strict criteria. Recent changes mean it is easier for spouses to pay PRSI once they are assigned a minimum of €5,000 reckonable income from the farm. This enables them to pay €500 in PRSI contributions to get credits of 52 weeks for each year.

“This is one thing that every farmer couple, where both work on farm, should look at,” Noel said.

Noel has found that there are many cases where people are not getting all the entitlements they are due.

“Many rural dwellers are not familiar with the conditions governing the range of Social Welfare schemes. They can be complicated,” he said. CL

Noel Leahy offers a private service. Call him on 087-266-3443 or email at noelpatleahy@eircom.net.

In brief

• Many farmers and spouses are missing out on Social Welfare entitlements

• Homemaker’s scheme can help to get you into a higher band for old-age pension

• Look to get PRSI contributions for both spouses

• Information and advice is available from Social Welfare or Citizens information