Hello Audrey,
I wonder are you referring to "change of Status" contributions - I believe that's where the "2 year's credits" comes into play. Change of Status contributions mainly benefits those who were paying a modified social welfare contribution and are not entitled to sign on for credits. In order to obtain "A" contributions and to sign on, they must obtain at least one week's work, and make the "A" contribution. For anyone in this position if the last social welfare contribution was an "A" contribution, then he/she is entitled to change of Status contributions, for the year
preceeding that in which he/she obtained the work and paid the "A" contribution, and from the
beginning of the year in which he/she obtained work and paid the "A" contribution. This can only be done once.
Sometimes the words "credited contributions" can be misleading.
Please bear in mind that these are
"credits", i.e. credited contributions, not
"paid" contributions. They will not help towards any short-fall which may exist in the required number of paid contributions, save for the week/s worked and for whiich "A" contributions were paid. They will, however, be used to bump up entitlements where credited contributions are being taken into consideration. You can get the full picture here
http://www.welfare.ie/foi/creditsaward.html
I hope this helps. Can anyone else add to this please.
Cheers.
Justsally