Weekly rates
The weekly rates are set by Schedule 2 to the Social Welfare Consolidation Act 2005 and were replaced for 2026 by the 2025 amending Act. This page shows the personal rate at each claim age, the increase for a qualified adult — including the part that is added rather than substituted where that adult has reached pensionable age — and the other increases the Schedule states.
The weekly rates are set out in Schedule 2 to the Social Welfare Consolidation Act 2005. The figures in force from 1 January 2026 were put there by the Social Welfare and Automatic Enrolment Retirement Savings System (Amendment) Act 2025, which replaced that part of the Schedule outright. The personal rate at 66 is €299.30 a week, rising to €363.90 where the claim is deferred to 70.
| Age when the pension is awarded | Personal rate | Qualified adult under 66 | Qualified adult 66 or over |
|---|---|---|---|
| 66 | €299.30 | €199.40 | €268.40 |
| 67 | €313.40 | €208.80 | €281.00 |
| 68 | €328.90 | €219.10 | €295.00 |
| 69 | €345.70 | €230.30 | €310.00 |
| 70 | €363.90 | €242.50 | €326.40 |
The increase for a qualified adult
Where an increase is payable for a qualified adult, the amount depends on that adult’s own age. At a personal rate of €299.30, the increase is €199.40 a week where the qualified adult is under pensionable age.
Where the qualified adult has reached pensionable age, the Schedule states a further amount as an additional increase rather than as a replacement figure, and it is added to the first: €199.40 plus the additional amount comes to €268.40 a week. The table above shows the combined figure, because the additional amount on its own is not what is paid.
Separate increases exist for qualified children, for living alone, for being aged 80 or over, and for being ordinarily resident on an island off the coast. Each has its own qualifying conditions, which are set by other provisions and are not covered here.
| Increase | Weekly amount |
|---|---|
| Each qualified child under 12 | €58.00 |
| Each qualified child aged 12 or over | €78.00 |
| Living alone | €22.00 |
| Aged 80 or over | €10.00 |
| Ordinarily resident on an island off the coast | €20.00 |
The personal rate is not the amount in payment
No provision caps the amount of State Pension (Contributory) payable. The age-referenced rate in Schedule 2 is the maximum PERSONAL rate for a given award age, but the increases for a qualified adult, qualified children, living alone, being aged 80 or over and island residence are all paid on top of it, so the amount in payment exceeds that rate for many claimants and no maximum is stated anywhere in the Chapter.
Every figure in this section is a weekly amount, which is the unit Schedule 2 states them in. This section does not multiply them out to a month or a year. An annual figure would be arithmetic performed here rather than an amount any Irish authority publishes, and it would be wrong for anyone whose rate changes part-way through a year or who is paid an increase this page does not know about.
This section sets out the published tables and the rules that govern them. It does not work out an individual pension amount, and it is not a forecast. Only the Department of Social Protection holds your contribution record.
How the rates change
The Social Welfare Consolidation Act 2005 prescribes no uprating rule for this pension. There is no formula, no index, no earnings or price measure and no minimum guarantee anywhere in the Act: the rates simply are whatever Schedule 2 says, and they change only when an Act of the Oireachtas substitutes that Schedule. Nothing obliges the Oireachtas to move them at all, in any direction, by any amount.
In practice the rates have been changed by an Act each year, but that is a description of what has happened rather than a rule that guarantees it will happen again.