Hundreds of pensioners who paid PRSI when they were self employed but received no benefit should be awarded a reduced contributory pension, according to a report from the Irish Human Rights Commission (IHRC).
The commission yesterday urged the Government to pay partial pensions and make retrospective ex gratiaawards to formerly self-employed people who were denied the pension simply because they were too old to accumulate sufficient insurance stamps at the time social welfare legislation was changed.
In its first report, concerning the pension entitlements of a Sarah and JJ Gallagher, a Co Donegal couple who ran a small business before retiring, the commission recommended that Mr Gallagher be paid a half-rate contributory pension. He was just a few months short in contributions to qualify for such a pension and would have qualified if it had been legally possible to credit him with his wife's contributions, it pointed out.
The commission said the cost of changing the regulations should be minimal, given that those excluded from a half-rate pension in 1999 comprised only 1 per cent of self-employed contributors aged 56 and over in 1988, when a Social Welfare Act first made PRSI compulsory for the self-employed. The number affected is also falling as people die.
"The commission recognises the hurt felt by persons as a result of the State not providing them with an old age contributory pension and hopes that, in the light of this report, the Government will act speedily to alleviate the hurt, thereby respecting the dignity and worth of these older citizens," the report states.
The commission also said it appeared human rights standards had not been "entirely respected" in the department's decision to deny a contributory pension to the Gallaghers. Advanced age alone should not cause a person to be excluded from old age benefit. It recommended that international human rights standards be closely examined in the formulation of future public policy and legislation.
The Gallaghers called on the Government to compensate them for 14 years of loss of entitled benefits. "We feel that it was illegal for the Government of our country to create such an unfair situation for itself and for all those that came under its hammer," they said in a statement. "Having employed thousands of Irish workers since 1957, paying employees' PRSI to the State for all of them, our family now have to support us at our senior age."
The Department of Social and Family Affairs said it had received details of the report's recommendations on Tuesday and was now examining them "with particular reference to how it might impact on the future pensions policy". Fewer than 500 people were involved, it said.
Social insurance contributions were first made compulsory for the self-employed in the Social Welfare Act 1988. However, would-be recipients were required to join the scheme before the age of 56, and the Gallaghers were older than this.
As a result, they were caught in a situation where they had to pay contributions into a scheme from which they could receive no benefit. In 1999, in an attempt to address this discrepancy, a further Social Welfare Act introduced a half-rate contributory pension. Once again, however, Mr Gallagher was excluded because of his age.