Ireland Agreement and foreign pension information 106-04018000

In Ireland, national legislation requires the compulsory payment of social security contributions, usually through deductions from paid employment. Social security covers most workers and the self-employed.

Contributions insure individuals against disability and unemployment and provides for income in the form of a pension once the person reaches retirement age. There are non-contributory benefits for those with low income.

The legislation and collection of contributions is the responsibility of the Irish government through taxation but administration and payment of pensions is the responsibility of the centralised government agency or department.

Widow B Pension was sunsetted in 1995 and, along with Bereavement Allowance, ceased to be paid from 2020. See:

• Widow B Pension
• Wife Pension
• Bereavement Allowance

The original Agreement with Ireland covered:

• age pensions
• invalid pensions (now Disability Support Pension (DSP))
• pensions payable to widows:
• Sole parent pension (now Parenting Payment Single)
• Widow B pension
• Wives’ pensions, and
• Widowed person's allowances

Note:

• There was no requirement for invalid pensions (DSP) to be severely disabled
• Widows (females only) were required to have been married (de jure) and not currently a member of a couple
• Any wife pension granted due to being the partner of Australian pensioner who was paid under the Agreement was also deemed to be paid under the Agreement

Portability under the 1992 Agreement was indefinite in Ireland and to third countries for the same period as an autonomous customer leaving Australia.

For Australia:

Department of Social Services (DSS)

For Ireland:

Ministry of Social Protection

For Australia:

Services Australia

Note: the Australian Taxation Office (ATO) is responsible for double coverage provisions.

For Ireland:

Department of Social Protection

For Australia:

Centrelink International Services (CIS)

Note: the Australian Taxation Office (ATO) is responsible for double coverage provisions.

For Ireland:

Social Welfare Services

Under the Agreement with Ireland, information held about customers may be exchanged between the liaison agencies to determine entitlement to payments under the Agreement and under either country's domestic legislation (Article 18.1).

For information on bulk data exchange, see International Data Exchange Program and auto indexation of foreign pensions.

The following liaison form is completed by Centrelink International Services (CIS) and sent to Ireland.

• AUS187IE - Australia/Ireland Agreement on Social Security

For help with creating and completing the liaison form, see Agreement liaisons, NZ CICs and exchange of information.

The following liaison form is completed by Ireland and is sent to Centrelink International Services (CIS).

Liaison Form - IRL/AUS2

This form is used in all communication from Ireland.

• Section 1: Purpose
• Section 2: Reference Number
• Section 3: Details if Insured Person: provides details of the insured person
• Section 4: Details of Claimant: provides details of the person applying
• Section 5: Date of Death
• Section 6: Information provided by Ireland: this section specifies the Irish information, including pensions and other forms or documents that may be sent with the liaison
• Section 7: Information requested by Ireland: this section specifies the Australian information required by Ireland
• Section 8: Insurance Periods: this section specifies the Irish insurance periods
• Section 9: Competent Authority: certification by the Irish competent institution

Under the Administrative Arrangements, each country will arrange for an agreed report to be and sent with claims for invalidity/disability pensions.

Medical examinations may also be undertaken upon request for foreign pension claim purpose. Generally, the liaison agency will contact Services Australia and request this be done. There is no provision for reimbursement of costs to either country.

The customer must contact Services Australia if they receive a direct request from the liaison agency to undertake a medical examination. Advise them to undertake Services Australia’s foreign pension medical assessment process. Where the customer has already undertaken a medical examination based on a direct request from the Agreement partner without consulting Services Australia, the customer should contact the liaison agency to discuss any reimbursement options.

If a customer is claiming reimbursement of costs based on undertaking a medical examination requested by Services Australia for foreign pension purpose, consider all evidence provided. For example, if incorrect advice was provided to the customer by Services Australia that caused them to seek an independent medical examination which caused the customer to be out of pocket.

See Customer compensation and Act of Grace.

Samples of forms, foreign documents and translations are available through the Residence and International program homepage.

The Agreement with Ireland includes double coverage provisions. Certificates of coverage are used to confirm exceptions.

Any enquiries about double coverage or certificates of coverage should be directed to the Australian Taxation Office (ATO) website.

Any queries about taxation of pensions or the requirement to lodge a tax return should be directed to:

• In the other country - the tax authority in the other country
• In Australia - the Australian Taxation Office (ATO) website

See general information on taxation, including issuing Australian payment summaries.

Tax treaty

Australia has a double tax agreement with Ireland, which avoids the need for the customer to pay tax in both countries.

A person who is 'resident' in one country (according to the definition in the tax agreement) generally only pays tax on pensions in that country.

Tax deductions from income by one country may be allowed as a credit against tax payable in the other country.

Tax deduction

Irish pensions generally do not have tax deducted.

The gross rate of Irish pension, before any deduction, is maintained.

Irish tax year

Ireland uses the calendar year (1 January - 31 December) as the tax year.

Australia has a reciprocal health agreement with Ireland.

See general information on health insurance and Medicare coverage.

Any queries about:

• Health insurance coverage in the other country - tell the customer to contact the health insurance authority in the other country
• Medicare coverage - direct them to Medicare

There are no health insurance deductions from Irish pension.

Ireland has two official languages: English and Irish (Gaelic).

Telephone country code is +353.

Street address delivery (Dublin/Cork):

Ttile FirstName Surname [Addressee]

12 Morehampton Road [House number/name + street name]

DUBLIN 4 [Postal town/district for Dublin]

IRELAND

Street address (not Dublin/Cork):

Title FirstName Surname [Addressee]

20 Rock Road [House number/name + street

Blackrock [Postal town/district for Dublin]

CO WICKLOW [County]

IRELAND

Note:

• Only Dublin and Cork have postal districts/codes
• Ireland introduced a national postcode system in 2014 called Eircode. The Eircode consists of seven characters. If provided, the Eircode is added on as an extra line to the existing address and postal district code, which stays unchanged. An example of recording an address using the Eircode:
• Address Line 1: 64 Dawson Street
• Address Line 2: DUBLIN 2
• Address Line 3: D02 AF30
• Country: IE
• Apart from abbreviating the word ‘county’ to CO, e.g. CO Claire, do not use any other abbreviations in the address, e.g. use Road not Rd

Northern Ireland is part of the United Kingdom and not the Republic of Ireland.

If the customer is residing in Northern Ireland, they cannot claim an Australian payment under the Irish Agreement.

The following may help identify if the customer is residing in Northern Ireland:

• The customer’s telephone code begins with +44
• The customer’s foreign income/assets are recorded in GBP or Sterling
• The customer’s address has a postal code where the customer is not residing in Dublin or Cork

Same-sex marriage in the Republic of Ireland has been legal since 16 November 2015.

For Australia, the Agreement with Ireland (Article 2.1) covers:

• Age Pension
• Disability Support Pension (DSP)
• Parenting Payment Single (PPS)

Note:

• Only severely disabled DSP customers may be granted under the Agreement (Article 2.1(a)(i)b)
• Only a ‘widowed person’ may be granted PPS under the Agreement. 'Widowed person' means a person (either gender) who ceases to be a member of a couple and who is not currently a member of a couple (Article 1.1(i))
• While BVA cannot be claimed after 20 March 2020, claims lodged prior to this date may still be received. See Bereavement Allowance (BVA)

Claims for Australian payments under International Agreements use the same methods and processes as domestic claims.

Forms to claim an Australian payment in Ireland can be obtained by:

• downloading the form from the Services Australia website. See Resources
• contacting Centrelink International Services (CIS)
• contacting the Irish authorities

Australian forms needed

The customer is to complete and provide the following:

All claims:

• AUS140IE - Australian Pension Claim – Social Security Agreement between Australia and Ireland

DSP only:

• AUS142 - Work Capacity - Customer Information
• AUS109 - Treating Doctor's Report - outside Australia
• AUS175 - Medical Assessment Report - Disability Support Pension (Outside Australia)

Note: Ireland arranges for the AUS175 to be completed on a case-by-case basis.

Forms can be lodged at any Irish social security office.

Under Section 5 of the Administrative Arrangements, the Irish liaison agency will:

• accept all forms/documents and date stamp the AUS140 form
• verify the customer’s identity and personal details
• when necessary, provide a copy of any existing medical information
• send the form(s) and any supporting documentation to Services Australia with a liaison form specifying periods of coverage in Ireland and information regarding Irish pensions

See Exchange of information and liaison forms.

If a person is not an Australian resident and in Australia on the date the claim is made, they may use the Agreement to meet the residence rules for claims if, on that date, they are:

• an Australian resident, a resident of Ireland or another Agreement country that accepts claims for Australian pension under another agreement (Article 10(a)), and
• physically present in Australia, Ireland or that third country (Article 10(b))

Claims under the Irish Agreement

Claims for Australian payment under the Irish Agreement may be lodged in some other Australian Agreement countries.

See the Claim lodgement matrix.

Accepting other Agreement claims

Ireland will accept claims for Australian benefits under other Australian social security agreements.

Claim lodgement consideration

The customer must also satisfy any other rules under the other agreement and social security law provisions, including portability. For example, DSP can be claimed in a third country but has an ongoing residence requirement. Therefore, if the claimant is:

• living in the other country, DSP cannot be paid
• temporarily in the other country, DSP may generally be paid for the period it is portable under domestic legislation

The normal rules for working out the date a claim is 'made' and the start day apply to claims under the Agreement with Ireland. However, the Agreement also allows:

• the date of lodgement of a claim for an Australian payment in Ireland to be used as the date of lodgement in Australia (Article 15.2), and
• that date of claim of an Irish benefit to be a claim for the corresponding Australian payment (FP claim = AU claim) (Article 15.3) if:
• the customer requests, or
• provides information on periods of residence in Australia at the time of claiming the Irish benefit

For coding help, see

• Claims for Australian payments under International Agreements)
• Start Day (CLK)

The Agreement allows:

• totalisation of periods of qualifying Australian residence and periods of coverage in Ireland to meet any minimum periods to qualify for an Australian pension, for example, 10 years for Age Pension (Article 11.1)
• the total of any non-continuous Irish periods of coverage to be considered to be continuous to meet any continuous residence requirement to claim an Australian pension (Article 11.2)

Note:

• Overlapping Australian residence and Irish periods of coverage are only counted once (Article 11.3)
• For Australian pensions payable to ‘widowed persons’ (Parenting Payment Single (PPS)), Irish periods of coverage by the deceased partner may be used to totalise (Article 11.5)
• Adjoining periods of Australian qualifying residence and Irish periods of coverage, with a break of up to 3 months in between, can also be considered to be continuous (Policy)

See Resources in International Social Security Agreements for examples of totalisation.

Irish period of coverage:

• means a period of insurance, for instance, a period for which Pay Related Social Insurance (PRSI) contributions have been paid, or credited, by employers on behalf of employees, or any equivalent period, as defined in the Irish legislations
• where equivalent periods may include deemed periods, such as for child rearing and military service
• where both actual and deemed periods may be used when totalising for Australian qualification purposes, as long as they are certified and don’t overlap
• is generally provided in weeks by the Irish authorities
• may include ‘Reckonable paid’ and the ‘Reckonable credited’ as indicated on contribution statement provided by the customer. The values in these two columns are added together for totalisation use
• must be certified by the Irish Competent Institution

The actual contribution ‘year’ has changed on a few occasions:

• Prior to 1978, the contribution year for men was the calendar year January to December and for women it was July to June
• In 1978 it changed to 6 April - 5 April, meaning the 1978 contribution year for men ran from 1 January 1978 - 5 April 1979 and for women from 1 July 1978 - 5 April 1979
• From 6 April 2001, the contribution year changed back to the calendar year, for both women and men, meaning the 2001 contribution year ran from 6 April 2001 - 31 December 2001

To be able to use the totalisation provisions, a person who is not an Australian resident at the date of lodgement must have at least 12 months Australian Working Life Residence (WLR) in Australia of which 6 months must be continuous (Article 11.4(a)).

Note: unlike WLR for rate, this period cannot be rounded.

No minimum WLR is required if the person is an Australian resident at the date of lodgement (Article 11.4(b)).

The Agreement allows the ongoing residence requirement for DSP and PPS to be met by customers who reside in Ireland (Article 17.1).

For customers outside Australia, the Agreement with Ireland (Article 12.1) refers to the overall rate calculation contained in Section 12(1) of the Social Security (International Agreements) Act 1999.

This means customers paid under the Agreement have:

• a proportional rate paid according to their Australian Working Life Residence (WLR)
• the Rate Limiter/Limited Rate applied
• additional child amounts (S14A SS(IA) 1999) included, if eligible
• their Irish pension proportionalised (Randisi concession) for use in the income test using denominator of 300 (Article 12.1)

Note:

• In some circumstances, their partner's WLR may be used. See Working Life Residence (WLR)
• Autonomous customers who are paid a proportional rate and in receipt of an Irish pension will also have the Randisi concession applied to their Irish pension (Article 12.2)

Non-proportional rate extension

Customers paid under the Agreement and temporarily outside Australia, cannot have their non-proportional portability rate extended if they are unable to return to Australia.

Returns to Australia:

The proportional rate continues to apply for the first 26 weeks of a temporary return to Australia (Article 12.4).

• For returns to Australia before 9 June 2018, manually code Temporary Return to Aust Ind on the Residence Savings (RSS) screen.

Customers in Australia under the Agreement are generally paid a direct deduction rate (Article 12.5).

The Agreement does not include a comparison rate in Australia.

Departures from Australia:

The inside Australia rate continues to be paid for the first 26 weeks of a temporary departure from Australia (Article 12.7).

Payments under the Agreement

Under the Agreement, provided the customer remains qualified, Australian payments are payable indefinitely in both countries, that is, for temporary or permanent absences (Article 17.1).

Third country portability under the Agreement

Portability to third countries for a customer paid under the Agreement is the same as for an autonomous customer leaving Australia (Article 17.2). See Portability of payments.

If necessary, a customer who receives an autonomous payment that stops being payable due to portability reasons can transfer to the Agreement to continue payment if:

• the payment is covered by the Agreement
• the customer meets any payment limitations, such as severely disabled, and
• the customer is able to meet the lodgement provisions of the Agreement

If transferred to the Agreement, all Agreement rules apply to the customer, including portability and rate of payment.

See Transfers to international social security agreements.

A person who has sufficient Australian qualifying residence (or an exemption) can only transfer from the Agreement to autonomous only if they are an Australian resident and in Australia.

On return to Australia, system processing will automatically transfer to from the Agreement to autonomous if the person is an Australian resident who has only used the Agreement to extend their portability while outside Australia.

Former resident provisions may be affect customers who transfer to autonomous if they leave Australia again within 2 years of becoming an Australian resident.

Australian payments may be issued to customers outside of Australia. If the customer intends to be outside of Australia:

• long-term (12 months or longer), their Australian payment may be issued to an overseas bank account. See Overseas Bank Account Details (OBAD) for payment requirements by country
• for less than 12 months, payment will continue to their normal Australian bank account every 2 weeks

See Delivery of payments to Centrelink customers outside Australia

For Ireland, the Agreement covers the Irish 'Social Welfare Acts' for particular payments.

Main payments

• State Pension (Contributory) (AGE)
• Invalidity Pension (INV)
• Widow Payments (WID):
• Widow's, Widower's or Surviving civil partner's (Contributory) pension
• Guardian's payment (Contributory) (formerly known as Orphans (Contributory)
• Bereavement Grant

Note:

• AGE includes State pension (Transition) but this is no longer paid
• Ireland pays a State Pension (Contributory) and State Pension (Non-Contributory)
• Care needs to be taken to when assessing the Irish AGE payment that the State Pension (Contributory) or SPC is recorded as an AGE pension. See:
  - State Pension (Contributory)
  - State Pension (Non-Contributory)

Supplementary payments/Allowances:

• Specific Irish social welfare benefits
• Back to education allowance (BTEA)
• Back to work enterprise allowance (BTWEA)
• Blind pension
• Blind welfare allowance (BWA)
• Carer's allowance
• Child benefit
• Disability allowance (DA)
• Domiciliary care allowance (DCA)
• Farm assist
• Fuel allowance
• Guardian's payment (Non-contributory) (formerly known as the Orphan's (Non-contributory) pension)
• Infectious diseases maintenance allowance
• Jobseeker allowance (formerly known as Unemployment assistance)
• Mobility allowance
• State pension (Non-contributory) (formerly known as Old- Age pension (Non-contributory))
• One-parent family payment
• Rent supplement
• Supplementary welfare allowance
• Widow's, widower's or Surviving Civil partner’s (Non-Contributory) pension (formerly known as the Widow’s and widower’s (Non-contributory) pension)
• Working Family Payment (WFP) (formerly known as Family income supplement)
• Any allowance, dependant's allowance, disability pension or wound pension under the Army Pensions Act 1923 to 1980
• Any allowance under Article 14 of the Child Care (Placement of Children in Foster Care) Regulations 1995 or Article 15 of the Child Care (Placement of Children with Relatives) Regulations 1995
• Increase for Qualified Adults (IQA)
• Living Alone Increase (LAI)

The following known payments are paid by the Irish authorities but are not covered under the Agreement:

• Christmas bonus
• Other known contributory payments:
• Illness benefit
• Injury benefit
• Jobseeker benefit (formerly known as Unemployment benefit)
• Partial capacity benefit (PCB)

For help with:

• Assessment of Irish pensions, see Assessment
• Coding of Irish pensions, see Eligibility and Coding

The requirement to claim Irish pensions applies to Irish AGE and INV.

• Customers may voluntarily claim WID pension using the AGE/INV claim pack

See Foreign pension claims.

The Eligibility and coding of foreign pensions tab contains detailed information on Irish payments that are subject to CFP legislation.

Claim packs are available for AGE/WID and INV.

Claim packs are issued through the Foreign Pension System (FPS). See Assisting customers to claims a foreign pension.

Specific requirements for Irish claims

The customer is to complete and provide the following:

All claims:

• Application form for Irish benefits under the agreement on social security between Ireland and Australia (IRL/AUS1)

WID only:

• Deceased person's Birth Certificate
• Death Certificate

Requests for additional information

If information provided with the claim for Irish pension is incomplete, Ireland will send requests for information direct to customers.

Receipt of foreign pension claim by Services Australia

Under the Administrative Arrangements, Irish forms can be lodged in Australia at any service centre. See Processing a foreign pension claim.

• All foreign pension claims and supporting documents must be scanned, and
• The original foreign claim form and (copies of) supporting documents must be sent in paper form to Centrelink International Services (CIS). See Processing a foreign pension claim

Centrelink International Services (CIS) only:

CIS will complete the following or arrange fort eh following to be completed as necessary and attach the documents to the foreign pension claim to send to the agreement country. See Agreement Liaison Detail (ALD) for method of transmission.

CIS staff are required to sign the relevant section of the claim form.

All claims:

• AUS187IE - Australia/Ireland Agreement on Social Security

For help with creating and completing the liaison form, see Agreement liaisons, NZ CICs and exchange of information.

INV only:

• E213 – Detailed Medical Report. See Foreign pension medical assessments
• Copies of existing Australian medical information

Enquiries about claims for Irish payments in Ireland or a third country should be directed to the Irish social security authorities.

Irish payments can be paid by direct deposit in Australia.

Any queries about the non-payment of Irish pension should be directed to the Irish pension authorities.

Agreement pensions are paid every 4 weeks.

Note: customers may receive a Christmas Bonus in early December.

Other benefits or private pensions are normally paid weekly, monthly or annually.

Irish pensions must be recorded in the source currency - Euro (EUR). Official statements provide the foreign currency amounts.

Amounts recorded in source currency on the Foreign Pensions Details (FPD) screen must not be changed to the Australian dollar amount.

Note: payments into Australia are made in Australian dollars.

Irish payments are generally increased for Consumer Price Index (CPI, or cost of living) in January each year.

For information on bulk exchanges and auto adjusted CPI increases, see International Data Exchange Program and auto-indexation of foreign pensions.

• directly deducted (Article 12.5) and ignored in the income test (Section 8(8)(zc) Social Security Act 1991) for customers under the Irish Agreement who are in Australia
• proportionalised and assessed as ordinary income (Article 12.1) for customers paid:
• under the Irish Agreement who are outside Australia
• autonomously who are on a long-term outside Australia rate
• ordinary income (not proportionalised) for customers paid:
• autonomously who are in Australia (Article 12.5)
• under another agreement other than Ireland or New Zealand who are inside or outside Australia

See Rate Calculation for when a direct deduction or proportional rate is applied.

Note:

• State Pension Transition (SPT) may be paid for up to 12 months prior to transferring to State Pension Contributory (SPC) but is assessed and coded as AGE in exactly the same way
• Each member of a couple is deemed to receive half of the total amount received by the couple (Article 12.6)

• Illness benefit
• Injury benefit
• Partial capacity benefit (PCB)
• Jobseeker’s benefit (which differs to Jobseeker allowance. See Exempt payments)

Jobseeker's Benefit is a weekly payment for people under the age of 66 who are out of work and are covered by Irish social insurance.

Note: this payment is not to be confused with Jobseeker’s allowance, which is assessed as exempt income.

• Irish supplementary payments IQA and LAI

The following supplementary payments are exempt if the main payment the customer receives is also exempt. Otherwise, its assessed the same as the main agreement pension.

• Increase to Qualified Adults (IQA) - formerly known as Qualified Adults Allowance (QAA), and
• Living Alone Increase (LAI) - formerly known as Living Alone Allowance (LAA)

IQA is an extra amount for an ‘adult dependent’. An adult dependant is usually the customer’s partner. To qualify for this payment, the customer must be getting an Irish social welfare payment and their ‘adult dependent’ must generally not be receiving a social welfare payment in their own right.

LAI is a weekly payment for people aged 66 or over who are receiving certain payments from the Irish Department of Social Protection who are living alone.

Specific Irish social welfare benefits

The following payments are exempt under the income test for customers paid under the Agreement and autonomously, who are residing in Ireland and for the first 26 weeks of a temporary return to Australia (Article 12.3):

• Back to education allowance (BTEA)

Where a customer is unemployed, parenting alone or have a disability and, they may take part in an education course and get a Back to Education Allowance (BTEA).

• Back to work enterprise allowance (BTWEA)

A scheme that encourages people under the age of 66 to become self-employed and keep a percentage of their social welfare payment for up to 2 years.

• Blind pension and Blind welfare allowance

The Blind pension is a means-tested payment paid to blind and visually impaired people who are residing in Ireland.

• Carer's allowance

A weekly social welfare payment to people who are caring for a person who needs support.

• Child benefit

A monthly payment to the parents or guardians of children under 18.

• Disability allowance (DA)

A weekly allowance paid to people with a disability aged 16 years and over.

• Domiciliary care allowance (DCA)

A monthly payment for a child aged under 16 with a severe disability.

• Farm assist (FA)

A means-tested payment for low-income farmers between the ages of 18 and 66 who is farming land in Ireland

• Fuel allowance

A means test payment to help with the cost of heating a home normally paid between September to April.

• Guardian's payment (Non-contributory)

Guardian's payment (Non-contributory) (formerly known as the Orphan's (Non-contributory) pension) is a means test payment to a person taking care of an orphan (both parents deceased, or one parent deceased and other parent is unknown/abandoned or failed to provide for child) under the age of 18 (or 22 if a full-time student).

Note: this payment is not to be confused with Guardian's Payment (Contributory) which is based on Irish social Insurance contributions paid prior by the deceased parent(s).

• Infectious diseases maintenance allowance

A means tested payment for people aged 16 years and over who are unable to make reasonable provision for their own maintenance or the maintenance of their dependants because they are undergoing treatment for a specified infectious disease.

• Mobility allowance

Was a means tested monthly payment for people aged 16 and over and under age 66, and who have a disability and are unable to walk or use public transport.

• State pension (Non-contributory)

The State Pension (Non-Contributory) is a means test payment for people who reside in Ireland and are aged 66 and over who do not qualify for a State Pension (Contributory) (SPC).

This payment may also be known as an Old-age (Non-contributory) pension.

The State Pension (Non-Contributory) is taxable, but if it is the customer’s sole income, they are unlikely to pay tax on it.

• One-parent family payment (OFP)

A means test payment for people residing in Ireland who are under the age of 66 and are bringing children up without the support of a partner.

• Rent supplement

A means-tested payment for private rented accommodation.

• Supplementary welfare allowance

A means tested payment paid as a weekly allowance to low income people residing in Ireland.

• Jobseeker's allowance

Jobseeker's allowance (formerly known as Unemployment assistance) is a payment to people who are unemployed between ages of 18 and 66.

Note: this payment is not to be confused with Jobseeker benefit, which is assessed as ordinary income. See Assessable payments.

• Widow's, widower's or Surviving Civil partner’s (Non-Contributory) pension

A means-tested payment payable to a widow, widower or surviving civil partner under the age of 66 who does not qualify for a contributory widow's, widower's or surviving civil partner’s payment.

This payment was formerly called the Widow's/Widower's (Non-Contributory) Pension.

• Working family payment (WFP)

Working Family Payment (WFP) (formerly known as Family Income Supplement (FIS)) is a weekly tax-free payment for low-income employees with dependent children.

• Any allowance, dependant's allowance, disability pension or wound pension under the Army Pensions Act 1923 to 1980
• Any allowance under Article 14 of the Child Care (Placement of Children in Foster Care) Regulations 1995 or Article 15 of the Child Care (Placement of Children with Relatives) Regulations 1995
• Christmas bonus

The Christmas Bonus is an extra payment for customers getting a long-term social welfare payment, including Illness benefit for 12 months or more.

Due to the non-standard amounts and uncertainty of payments, policy is that Irish Christmas Bonus is exempt from the income test in all cases.

• Irish Bereavement Grant

Irish Bereavement Grant may be exempt from the income test if payable as a reimbursement to the person who incurred expenses associated with the bereavement.

Otherwise, the amount is assessable over 12 months from date of receipt (s1073 Social Security Act 1991). See Treatment of lump sums.

The Agreement includes indirect embargo provisions (Article 16.5) but they are not used.

Arrears debts for customers and their partners are raised under s1228A Social Security Act 1991 and recovered via normal methods under the Act. See Comparable Foreign Payment (CFP) lump sum arrears debts.

When an arrears period is not provided, the arrears period end date may be assumed to be the end of the month before the date on the notice or liaison form.

A contravention debt may also occur if the customer does not advise of the grant of their Irish payment within their notification period. See Foreign pension coding.

Ireland does not use life certificates.

Customers in Australia are sent notices at grant and will receive an annual statement in between January and March each year.