Dáil Éireann Debate, Tuesday - 8 April 2014
250. Deputy Éamon Ó Cuív asked the Minister for Public Expenditure and Reform the reason persons working in the public service who will be entitled to a State pension at 66 are not allowed remain working until they are 66 years of age, as the present arrangements mean that they are pensioned off compulsorily at 65 years before they are entitled to a State pension; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [16145/14]
View answerThe specific compulsory retirement age and minimum pension age provisions which affect an individual public servant will reflect his or her particular employment sector and time of original recruitment.
Under recent Department of Social Protection legislation, the State Pension age is due to increase gradually over the period ahead, reaching 68 years in 2028. This process began on 1 January 2014 with the standardising of State Pension age for all persons at 66 years and the cessation of the State Pension (Transition), which had previously been payable at 65 years.
Public servants who must retire at age 65 can of course draw their public service pension at age 65. The State Pension changes have no impact on such persons where they are in the modified social insurance category. Where alternatively they are in the full social insurance category their public service pensions (and contributions) are, as with many occupational schemes, integrated (or co-ordinated) with social welfare benefits. This means the occupational pension paid is based on the assumption that the pensioner also receives the State Pension.
However the State Pension is, since 1 Janaury 2014, only payable from age 66 years. In the case of retirements of fully insured public servants at age 65, a discretionary supplementary pension may be payable under the rules of the public service scheme to bridge the gap until State Pension commencement at age 66 years. This supplementary pension is only payable where the individual, through no fault of his own or her own, does not qualify for social welfare benefit or qualifies at less than the maximum personal rate. It is therefore necessary to claim any available social welfare benefits in order to receive a supplementary pension. This situation is not new and already applies to public servants with a retirement age below 65 years.
I therefore have no proposals to amend the current compulsory retirement age provisions of public servants.
