Age Pension

Overview

An Age Pension may be awarded to a person who reaches sixty (60) years of age, does not have enough paid or credited Social Security Contributions to be eligible for a Contributory Retirement Pension and satisfies the Means Test.

What you’ll get

The Age Pension is paid every four (4) weeks in advance.

Please click here for a Schedule of Benefits Rates.

Eligibility

General eligibility criteria:

An applicant is either married; in a civil union; cohabiting or single and in receipt of Unemployment or Social Assistance and reaches sixty (60) years of age.
If an applicant’s spouse reaches sixty (60) years of age prior to the head of household, one may apply for an Age Pension in her own right until the Head of Household reaches pension age when they will be awarded a married rate.
If a person reaches sixty-one (61) years of age and is entitled to a Social Security Contributory Pension (though the awarded at rate is less than the applicable Age Pension rate), a beneficiary may apply for the difference by submitting an Age Pension application.
The applicant must satisfy the Capital Means Test. Capital resources for a couple must not exceed twenty-three thousand and three-hundred euro (€23,300) and fourteen-thousand euro (€14,000) for a single person.
From January 2022, those who have inherited after starting to receive the non-contributory pension and have been receiving it for at least five (5) years, the capital limit is fifty thousand euro (€50,000) for spouses and thirty-thousand euro (€30,000) for single persons. On the same parameters, donations up to a maximum total of twenty-thousand euro (€20,000) made to children in a formal and legal way and also a donation of the pensioner’s property site, will start to be excluded from the calculation of the capital.
If a couple is in receipt of an Age Pension and the spouse is/becomes entitled to a Severe Disability Assistance, the Age Pension elegiblity will be calculated on the income of the household excluding the entitlement received as Severe Disability Assistance by the spouse.
Any income deriving from Rents, Bank Interest from Capital, Stocks and Shares, Child Maintenance and any other Income derived, must not exceed the maximum Social Assistance or Unemployment Assistance rate as per household.

Documents required

General documentation:

Bank Statements of all local and foreign bank accounts.
Rent Receipts (if paying rent).
Document/s regarding cars in possession.
Document/s regarding Property in possession.
If married/civil union/cohabitation and spouse or partner is employed – copy of payslip.
If separated/divorced – copy of contract of separation or divorce documents