Submission 311
May 08
Green Paper Submission
I am a retired nurse and mid-wife on reaching my 66th birthday my application for a contributory old age pension was refused as I had not paid the correct number of contributions.
Having worked for 23.5 years in both a temporary and permanent capacity from 1964 I had no idea that on becoming permanent my employer did not pay reckonable contributions!!
In those years your duty was constantly broken when you were a temporary nurse and when you married you were obliged to resign from your job!! How was one expected to have the required number of reckonable contributions?
For the past 8 years I have been a full time carer and nurse to my ill father-in-law who lives with us (100 years old) I was not allowed any credit for these years. I have never been given the opportunity to purchase credits even though I applied for information about my old age pension in 2003 and have never looked for unemployment benefit, no one gave me any information or advised that I required 260 reckonable contributions. I have been treated very unfairly as a person who has always paid my way in this country. The system leaves me very depressed and unhappy.
