Taoiseach Leo Varadkar and Minister for Social Protection Regina Doherty
Last night.
The Irish Independent reported that public service employees, who joined after April 6, 1995 and who can retire at 63, can access a supplemental pension equal to the State pension until their State pension begins to be paid out at 66.
However, this is not available to private sector workers who are legally obliged to retire at 65.
Instead, they must claim Jobseekers’ Benefit until they reach the age of 66.
The State pension age is due to go to 67 next year and 68 from 2028.
The Jobseekers’ Benefit payment, the Irish Independent reported, is €45 less than the supplemental pension that public service workers can receive.
Later last night, Hugh O’Connell reported that Taoiseach Leo Varadkar, on the campaign trail, said “Fine Gael plans to introduce a transition payment at the same rate as the State pension to avoid people having to apply for the dole when they retire”.
The Minister for Employment Affairs and Social Protection Regina Doherty then released a statement saying:
“Tonight, I can confirm that this new transition pension will be paid at a rate equivalent to the Contributory State Pension. This change provides financial certainty to people retiring at 66.”
This morning.
Philip Ryan, of the Irish Independent, told RTÉ’s Seán O’Rourke:
“They’re all scrambling to get around this. Really they’ve been pushed into this corner by the Labour party and Sinn Féin who’ve made commitments. The Labour party not to allow the increase to go next year to 67 and Sinn Féin to go even further and say it will be reduced to 65.
“So both parties, Fianna Fáil and Fine Gael have been all over the place on this, I think.
“And last night we had, first of all we had the Taoiseach suggesting that it’s transitional payment which would match the State pension would be introduced for people who are retiring from 65 onwards.
“Then the statement came out from Social Protection, Minister Regina Doherty, seemed to be suggesting that this transitional payment will only kick in next year when the State pension goes up to 67.
“So we’re a little bit, still unclear on where the parties stand on this.
“And then you also have Fianna Fáil, Micheál Martin, at one point saying that, he seemed to be deferring the increase, pending a review. But now they seem to be going for the transitional payment as well.”
Anyone?
Listen back in full here
Instead, they must claim Jobseekers’ Benefit until they reach the age of 66.”
Or, they could get a job.
Yeah, no shortage of employers looking for a 65 yr old for a year.
ha
or they could access training or further education if they so wish.
to what end? or should the elderly work until they die? nothing but further meat for the “economy”
what business is it of yours to what end?
if a retired person wants to engage themselves and learn a new skill, who are you to insist they have to go back to work?
I feel bad for the people caught in the trap currently of being obliged to retire at 65, but unable to access to pension until 67.
But indeed, people are starting work later, living longer and having fewer kids – we do need to do something about the retirement age.
Have to agree with you there.
Anything I hear from Regina, I assume to be at least partially a lie. Will be good to see this in writing and followed through on.
She explains everything just as it has been repeatedly explained to her by her advisors.
She speaks in crayon.
Most of us will be begging to work beyond 65 unfortunately as only a small percentage of especially private sector workers contribute into a pension fund and the rest of us who will never own their own home will need to work til we drop. This country is plummeting head-on into a massive problem, greater than the one we are currently in – old age poverty and old- age homeless the likes of which the country has never seen before. It will become obvious in the next 5 years and will be a major crisis in 15.
They will probably end up trying to incentivise early retirement as increased automation reduces the number of jobs resulting in an increase in unemployment among younger people.
The State Transition Pension, payable at 65, was done away with in 2015 under Burton and Minister for Social Welfare. Varadkar took over Social Welfare the following year and under his steerage decided to raise the State Contributory Pension age from 66 to 67 next year and 68 in 2028. All of a sudden now he want to drop it back to 65 again. Lying Liar. If he got his way everyone earning under €60,000 per year would be euthanized at 66 leaving an elite rich Ireland for the toffs.
Not to put too fine a point on it but if you’re a dandyish 40-something with no dependancies and in a two-income partnership the chances of you caring whether someone in their later life has to work to 68 before retiring comes a long way down the list of important things such as tickets to see Kylie and a colourful sock collection.
Varadkar has spent too long viewing Ireland from the back of a government limo with his shoes barely stepping on anything other than state carpets.
He could do with a spell back in A&E placating sick people spending hours on a trolley in a corridor.
charger, you need to stop this nonsense of being sensible, logical and empathetic – it doesn’t suit you.
it might be time for salame nutbag or whatever your new name is supposed to be.
Just to be clear. FG not big on clarity. The retiree goes on full jobseekers benefit. However if he/she has a partner (Qualified Adult – IQA) dependent, then that IQA is means tested. If there are savings / property/ investments then the chances of a payment for an IQA is slim or else reduced.
In effect this could mean that the 65 year old might.only get £203 benefit only and no extra for a IQA for 9 months.
And after that nine.months both the retiree and dependent are jointly means tested which could see a drastic decrease in jobseekers allowance, depending on savings.
So they work, save, and then are penalised compared to people who don’t.
I’d say the long-term doleheads are laughing at this whole pension age thing.
They probably are, but there’s not many of them due to the really low rate of unemployment. Or whatever..
The transitional pension will be paid at same rate…
am I right in thinking, it’s the pension and the word ‘transitional’ is there to soften it for the FG base?
Country run by a shower of clowns
A large proportion of those public service employees who joined after 1995 would have joined in their early 20s, I’d imagine. Maybe just out of college, or a year or two later.
It’s not unreasonable, then, to assume that a large proportion of the public service employees who joined after 1995 would have been around 23 years of age. If those who joined in 1995 work for 40 years and retire at age 63 to get this supplemental pension the first of them will be working until roughly 2035. Therefore, this is something which in most cases won’t be happening for another 15 years, at least 3 more governments. And that’s only for those who joined in 1995, or 25 years ago. Others who joined after 1995 will still have to work their full 40 years, pushing their “early retirement” to later years.
Looking at the State Pension, and pensioners at around that time (well 2036, but close enough), it’s estimated by CSO that in 2036 we’ll have a total population in the country of between 5.3m and 5.9m. This will mean about 1.1m or 1.2m people over the age of 64 by that time (somewhere between 18% and 22% of the population). Compare that to approximately 740,000 at present out of a population of around 4.9m (or 15% over 64). (Stats from CSO website at “Population Projections Results” – https://www.cso.ie/en/releasesandpublications/ep/p-plfp/populationandlabourforceprojections2017-2051/populationprojectionsresults/ if you want to check them yourself).
That’s quite an increase in the older population, and they will all be looking for state pensions. How are we going to pay them all?