To qualify for a standard rate State Pension (Transition), each of the following four statements must apply:
- You have retired from full-time employment, or, if you are working have earnings of less than €38 per week or €3,174 per year if you are self employed.
- You have started paying social insurance before age 55 at the full-rate or at the modified rate.
- You have paid either:
- 260 full-rate contributions if you reach age 65 before 5 April 2012, or
- 520 full-rate contributions if you reach age 65 from 6 April 2012 (check with your local Social Welfare Office what voluntary contribution you may use to make up the 520).
- You have either:
- a 'yearly average' of at least 24 paid or credited reckonable (See note below) contributions since you first started paying social insurance, or
- a 'yearly average' of at least 48 paid or credited reckonable (See note below) contributions from 6 April 1979 to the end of the tax year before you reach pension age, known as the 'alternative yearly average'.
Note:
Reckonable contributions are full-rate contributions paid or credited, and high or special rate Voluntary Contributions.