If the State Pension is all you have.
This puts the State Pension next to what retirement in Ireland actually costs, using the Pensions Council's own research. It starts at the best case, a full forty years of contributions, and you can move it from there.
Your details
Slide, or tap a value to type any amount.
Reckonable means all three kinds added together: contributions you paid, contributions you were credited while unemployed or ill, and HomeCaring Periods for time spent looking after a child or someone who needed care. 2,080 is a full forty years. You can check your own record at MyWelfare.ie.
Used for this line only. It does not change the pension figure, and this page does not project investment growth.
On 2,080 reckonable contributions, 40 years, this shows €299.30 a week, €15,564 a year, which covers 81% of a modest standard of living.
Against what retirement costs
Three standards of living for a single person, from the Pensions Council's research. The bar shows how much of each one the State Pension covers.
Living standards: Pensions Council, Irish Retirement Living Standards, researched by KPMG, September 2024, single person. Pension rate and rules: Citizens Information and gov.ie. Figures checked 9 September 2026.
How your State Pension is actually worked out
Since the switch to the Total Contributions Approach (TCA), your rate depends on how many reckonable contributions you have built up. Reckonable does not just mean paid. It includes contributions you were credited, for example while unemployed or ill, and HomeCaring Periods, time spent looking after a child or someone who needed care. If you have ever taken time out to care for someone, that time may still count toward your pension even though nothing came out of a payslip during it.
The shape of it: 2,080 reckonable contributions gets the full rate, €299.30 a week from January 2026. Qualifying takes 520 paid contributions, ten years; credits and HomeCaring Periods count toward the rate but not toward that minimum. Between 520 and 2,080, it is a pro rata share.
One honest caveat. Until the transition finishes, the Department calculates this two ways, once on TCA alone and once blending TCA with the older Yearly Average method, and pays whichever comes out higher. This tool shows the TCA-only figure. If your record has gaps, that means what you see here is a floor rather than your exact number, and your real entitlement could be a little higher once the blended calculation is checked. Worth confirming your own figure at MyWelfare.ie rather than treating this as final. The State Pension entitlement check works the rate out both ways and shows which one the Department would pay.
What closes the difference is a second pension.
The State Pension is a floor, not a plan. What sits on top of it, and how much of it you need, depends on when you start and what you want retirement to look like. Damian will work through your own numbers in a free 20-minute chat.
This page is information, not advice. It compares two sets of published figures for illustration. It is not a personal recommendation, not a forecast of your own pension, and not a statement of what you will be paid. Regulated financial advice is given in a personal consultation with Damian, where we take the time to understand your situation first.
The assumptions behind these numbers
- The Department of Social Protection works your pension out in a more detailed way than this. Until 2034 it calculates a rate two ways, once under the Total Contributions Approach and once blending that with the older Yearly Average method, and pays whichever is higher. This tool uses the Total Contributions Approach on its own. The State Pension entitlement check works the rate out both ways and shows which one the Department would pay.
- That means a figure below the maximum is a floor. Anyone without a full forty years may be paid more than this tool shows, and the difference against a living standard may be smaller. At a full 2,080 contributions the figure is exact.
- Reckonable contributions are paid contributions, plus credited contributions, plus HomeCaring Periods. Credited contributions are themselves capped at 520. This tool takes the total you enter at face value and does not check how it is made up.
- The maximum personal rate is €299.30 a week from January 2026. Rates change, usually at each Budget. The annual figure is 52 weekly payments.
- Qualifying needs 520 paid contributions, ten years; credits and HomeCaring Periods do not count toward that minimum. This tool takes the total you enter at face value, so below 520 it shows no entitlement. A means-tested State Pension (Non-Contributory) may apply instead, on a different basis, and this tool does not calculate it.
- The rate shown is the personal rate at 66. It does not include an increase for a qualified adult or child, and it does not include the higher rate that applies from age 80.
- The living standards are for a single person. Couple figures are higher in total and lower per person, and are not shown here.
- The living standards describe annual spending in 2024 prices and have not been adjusted for inflation since. Both sides of this comparison move over time, and they do not move together.
- Figures are illustrations, not a guarantee of any outcome, and not personalised advice.