Rules

Social insurance contributions

To get Invalidity Pension you must have at least:

• 260 (5 years) paid PRSI contributions since entering social insurance
• 48 contributions paid or credited in the last complete tax year before the date of your claim

Note that only PRSI paid in classes A, E and H count. The last complete tax year is the year before your claim. For example, if you claim Invalidity Pension in 2012, the last complete tax year is 2011.

Medical criteria

A doctor employed by the Department of Social Protection decides whether you are medically unfit for work and qualify on medical grounds for Invalidity Pension.

To qualify you must:

• Have been incapable of work for at least 12 months and be likely to be incapable of work for at least another 12 months (you will probably have been getting Illness Benefit or Disability Allowance during that time)

Or

• Be permanently incapable of work (in certain cases of very serious illness or disability, you can transfer directly from another social welfare payment or from your job to Invalidity Pension).

Invalidity Pension and work

From 13 February 2012, Partial Capacity Benefit replaces the previous exemption arrangements where people on Invalidity Pension could get permission to work part-time (known as an exemption) for rehabilitative or therapeutic purposes and keep their full social welfare payment.

Those who currently have this permission will not be affected until their permission comes up for review. At that stage, the exemption will no longer be available to them but they have the option of applying for Partial Capacity Benefit. There is no requirement that the work a person does while on Partial Capacity Benefit has to be for rehabilitative or therapeutic purposes.

Training

If you are on Illness Benefit or Invalidity Pension and want to do a FÁS training course, you do not go onto Partial Capacity Benefit. You apply to the Illness Benefit or Invalidity Pension section, as appropriate. You may get the training allowance as well as your normal social welfare payment.