The pre-retirement allowance – PRETA – is a means-tested payment which allows a person aged 55 or over to opt to retire from the labour force and receive a weekly allowance. In order to qualify for the payment, the person concerned must be in receipt of a long-term unemployment payment, or be no longer entitled to one-parent family payment or carer's allowance.
Claimants of PRETA must be retired from the labour force and are not, therefore, subject to the same requirements as claimants of unemployment payments.
PRETA was initially introduced in 1990 for long-term unemployed persons aged 60 or over. The qualifying age limit was subsequently reduced to 58 years in 1991 and to 55 years of age in 1992.
It is important to recognise that the scheme is entirely optional and there is no obligation therefore on anyone to avail of PRETA. The current strong performance of the Irish economy is reflected in a steady reduction in the numbers seeking to avail of the scheme in recent years and I expect that this trend will continue in the future.
It is estimated that expenditure on PRETA will amount to £61.1 million in 2000. As the payment rates, means test etc. that apply to PRETA are the same as those applying to long-term unemployment assistance, it is likely that the same level of expenditure would arise if PRETA did not exist and claimants were on the live register instead. Some 13,151 claimants were in receipt of PRETA at end-December, 1999 of which over 60% were aged 60 years or more.