All spouse partnerships are entitled to claim

I AM dismayed by your inaccurate and unfair editorial headlined ‘Farm pension U-turn. Decision is wrong and inequitable’ (April 9).

I would like to clarify that all spouses, not just farm spouses, who were working in commercial partnership with each other in previous years, but who did not claim so when making their annual tax returns, can claim for spouse’s partnership status retrospectively.

By the end of 2009, more than 160 non-farm spouses had availed of the opportunity to apply for spouse’s partnership status retrospectively, and made full retrospective PRSI contributions. Minister for Social and Family Affairs Eamon Ó Cuiv’s decision to honour the agreement and restore the state contributory pension to women who worked in partnership with their spouses was the right thing to do. It recognised the contribution these spouses had made and restored equity.