Prior to payment of the Occupational Supplementary Pension, a retired Garda must engage with the Department of Social Protection (DSP) and obtain proof that they have exhausted any relevant benefits for which they may be eligible under the social insurance system. The rules surrounding qualifying for a Social Insurance benefit are a matter for the DSP.
One of the criteria to qualify for the payment of an occupational supplementary pension is that the retired Garda must not be in paid employment, any paid employment would result in the payment of the occupational supplementary pension being applied on a pro-rata basis.
Where an individual in receipt of an occupational supplementary pension takes up part-time employment, for example, for one day, the supplementary pension would cease for that one day only and will be payable for the other 4 working days in the week, similar to how an entitlement to Jobseeker’s Benefit is treated. Therefore, taking up paid employment for one day in the week/year would not cause an occupational supplementary pension to cease for the whole year. The occupational supplementary pension would not be payable for that one day of paid employment.
Officials in my Department and the Department of Public Expenditure, NDP Delivery and Reform are working to resolve this issue with a view to establishing a more efficient and streamlined approach.
Current Garda recruits qualify for the Single Scheme. The Single Public Service Pension Scheme started on 1 January 2013 and it is a career-average defined benefit pension scheme. Following retirement, increases to the pension are linked to inflation.
