Withdrawal from ARF before reaching 61.

Joebloggs said:

If he works for 13 weeks during the Calendar Year of his 62nd Birthday, should he sign on for Credits also ?

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The important thing is to have a minimum of 39 contributions during the calendar year of his 63rd birthday. These can be either full rate paid class A, or Jobseekers credits..

So he would be okay not to sign on in other calendar years.

But to make sure he doesn't get confused and forget to sign on for the calendar year of his 63rd birthday, I would recommend signing on each year.

There is only one sign on date each year, so it's easy to do.

This is also a good idea, just in case there are any rules changes made for BP65.

The signing on for credits and working for 13 weeks is only in order to qualify for BP65.

This is a great extra bonus, as you state.

However his class S will get him all the reckonable paid prsi contributions he needs for the COAP.

Thank you very much S Class. You are such a mine of information.

So, if you don't mind @S class, to sum up both my original question and the new information/strategy you provided/suggested.

If I withdraw €5000 per anuum from my ARF each year from 2025 to 2030 I'll have 312 Class S contributions. On top of my 1800+ Class D contributions (which have no financial value but give value to my Class S contributions) this will give me a small COAP from when I turn 66? I calculate the pro rata pension at about €40 odd. Does all that make sense?

Thanks again.

@4ofablue

Yes that looks correct.

You could be in a good position to benefit from deferring your COAP up to age 70 or possibly a bit sooner.

Try to calculate if you could manage to reach 520 class S contributions up to age 70.

If your ARF becomes depleted, you can make voluntary contributions up to age 70. These would cost 650 euro per year.

If you could manage this your pension would increase to approximately 88 euro per week.

You could break even at age 74 and from then on you would gain approximately 2500 euro extra per year.

Thanks again @S class

Continuing the €5000 per annum withdrawal shouldn't be an issue (fingers crossed) so I'd have 520 Class S contributions by the end of 2034. I'll be 70 in February 2035 (assumptions!).

I presume you mean I would defer the pension at 66 in favour of taking it at 70?

And obviously I don't have to make any decisions on this imminently apart from processing the first 5k withdrawal this year?

S class said:

You could be in a good position to benefit from deferring your COAP up to age 70 or possibly a bit sooner.

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4ofablue said:

I presume you mean I would defer the pension at 66 in favour of taking it at 70?

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S class said:

You could break even at age 74 and from then on you would gain approximately 2300 euro extra per year.

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How so?

@4ofablue

Yes that's it exactly. You don't have to decide until you reach age 66.

If your health is good then, it would make sense to defer.

You could begin your COAP on 1st January 2035.

@4ofablue

There could also be a possibility of claiming your COAP much earlier in 2034.

If you took a lump sum drawdown from your ARF of 5k in January 2034.

You would have your 520 class S immediately and you could then apply for your COAP.

As insurance, in case this was not acceptable to DSP, you could choose payment of your pension into your local post office.

lf the pension calculation was not based on 520 paid Prsi contributions, you can reject the pension provided that you have not taken any payments.

You could then reapply on 1st January 2035.

If this worked the COAP would be slightly lower as it would be based on age 69 rather than 70.

But the payback time for the slight extra pension amount you would gain by waiting until age 70 would be far longer than 4 years. You would need to get your calculator out to check the extra break even time.

You could again decide your strategy when you are near age 69.

ClubMan said:

How so?

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The poster would have a pro rata pension of roughly 40 euro per week at age 66.

Deferring to age 70 they would have 25% of 351.80 (2025 rate), so roughly 88 euro per week.

They would actually get nearly 2500 euro extra per year.

Ok, thanks again @S class. I'll get started with the first withdrawal.

Where are you getting the figure 351.80 by the way?

@4ofablue

Every day's a school day!