Public servants are escaping new pension rules that delay the payment of the State pension.
The State contributory pension is now only paid from the age of 66, meaning that thousands of people who are compelled to leave work at the age of 65 have to claim Jobseekers’ Benefit – getting almost €50 a week less than they would from their pension.
However in today’s Irish Independent Charlie Weston has revealed that public servants are exempt to the change in the pension rules.
It has been revealed that public servants get a “supplementary pension” before they can qualify for the State contributory pension at 66.
This is despite public servants, which have been recruited since 1995, being part of the Pay Related Social Insurance (PRSI) system that funds State pensions.
Public Servants are getting a full supplementary pension payment even in cases where they do not have sufficient PRSI contributions to give them the maximum State pension.
The Department of Public Expenditure has confirmed that the “supplementary” pension exits, that is basically a substitution for the State pension until public servants reach the State pension age of 66.
As a result of this pension experts have said that this means that public servants have insulated themselves from the decision to raise the State pension.
A spokesperson for the Department of Public Expenditure told the Irish Independent that
“In certain circumstances, civil servants whose pension is integrated with the State pension may qualify for a supplementary pension to make up the difference between the amount of the occupational pension to which they are entitled and the amount they would have received if their occupational pension was not integrated.”
Article Source: http://tinyurl.com/kbwqb42
