Lullagram money minute 1 · Pensions for parents
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Mostly, no. Your State pension is built from PRSI weeks. Every week you're paid Maternity, Paternity or Parent's Benefit is added to your record automatically, as if you'd worked it.
Lullagram · lullagram.ie/moneyThe extra 16 weeks of unpaid maternity leave only count if your employer applies for the credits when you go back. The same goes for unpaid parental leave: your employer has to tell the Department of Social Protection.
Lullagram · lullagram.ie/moneyAsk HR: "Please apply for my unpaid maternity leave credits, and my parental leave credits if I take any." A few months later, check your PRSI record on MyWelfare.ie.
Lullagram · lullagram.ie/moneyIf you leave work to mind a child under 12, the HomeCaring Periods scheme can count up to 20 years of it towards your State pension. You claim it when you reach pension age, so write down your dates now.
Lullagram · lullagram.ie/moneyThe full State pension needs 2,080 weeks, about 40 years. At today's top rate of €299.30 a week, each missing year can cost about €7.50 a week for the rest of your life. That's close to €390 a year.
Lullagram · lullagram.ie/moneyFree reminders before every payment and deadline, from pregnancy to your child's 2nd birthday, plus your pregnancy and baby tracker in one app. Made in Ireland.
Sources, checked 27 October 2026: Citizens Information, Citizens Information, Citizens Information. General information, not financial advice; it doesn't know your circumstances. Lullagram Limited isn't authorised by the Central Bank of Ireland to give financial advice, so for a decision about your own money, talk to a regulated adviser.