Moving back home to Ireland – Social Insurance Contributions

If you have been living and working abroad, you were more than likely paying social insurance contributions in that country. Now that you are returning home, can these be combined with your Irish contributions?

Ireland has social security arrangements in place with other countries to enable you to combine your contributions from abroad, these are divided into;

• EU Regulations
• Bilateral Social Security Agreements

Therefore, these can be added together to help you qualify for a range of Social Welfare benefits.

EU Regulations

This regulation applies to the following people;

• EU Nationals, who are or have been insured in one of these countries, and their family members.
• People with the status of stateless people or refugees who are or have been insured in any EU country and their family members.
• Non-EU nationals legally residing in the territory of the EU, who have moved between countries covered by the regulations and their family members.

Your social insurance contributions can be combined with your Irish contributions from each EU state.

Bilateral Social Security Agreements

There are arrangements with certain countries that have agreed to participate and allow people to move between countries and protect their contributions. Although, these contributions will only cover some State Pensions. These countries include;

• Canada
• Quebec
• Australia
• United States of America
• New Zealand
• Austria
• Republic of Korea
• Japan
• UK (covering Channel Islands and the Isle of Man)

Therefore, if you retire and move to Ireland, your pension rights are protected, you can receive an Irish pension and another from another country.

Brexit

As the UK left the EU on January 31^st with certain provisions until 31^st December 2020, the UK will follow EU rules. All EU regulations will apply to the UK during this time. As the Common Travel Area between Ireland and the UK will remain in place, this will protect their rights as before.

How to apply

An application for social insurance payments is available from The Department of Employment Affairs and Social Protection. Within this application, you will be asked to confirm if you have been employed in an EU country or a country in which Ireland has a bilateral social security arrangement. The Department will request your social insurance contribution details directly from that country.

Should you have any queries on this issue, please contact us on 01 5397999 or info@itasaccounting.ie

————Why not read our blog on Returning to Ireland – SARP Relief————