State pension transition is paid to those who retire from work at age 65 and who meet the qualifying conditions for the scheme, until they reach 66 years and transfer to State pension contributory. In 2012, 22,430 claims were received for State pension transition with 12,559 claims awarded . It is not possible to predict with accuracy the number of persons in the population on social welfare payments who would have qualified to receive the State pension transition in 2014, 2015, 2016, 2017, 2018 and 2019 respectively.
In relation to previous years, in 2011, 2,384 transferred to State pension transition from illness benefit, 829 transferred from job seekers benefit, 827 from job seekers allowance, 405 from widows/widowers/surviving civil partners scheme, 88 customers from invalidity pension and 176 from disability allowance.
In 2012 the equivalent was 2,485 from illness benefit, 1,044 from job seekers benefit, 922 from jobseekers allowance, 439 from widows/widowers/surviving civil partners scheme, 200 from disability allowance and105 from invalidity pension
State pension age will be standardised at age 66 in 2014 when State pension transition is abolished. Reforms to pension provision such as this are necessary if we are to continue to put pension provision on a sustainable footing given the changes in demographics and the need to sustain pension provision in Ireland.
