Minister Donohoe admits pension hit to women is 'bonkers'

[joe sod]

For example even if you had a big gap in contributions for example 15 years out of a 30 year working life which is a very long break by any standard you would fall into the 20-29 bracket as you would have at least an average of 25 and you still receive almost 200euro in pension

a further big point to this is that for the state to pay out this reduced pension of 198 euros would require a pension pot of 181000 euros. In other words a private pension pot of 181000 at 66 could only pay out 198 euros per week. It is doubtful that a person with such a short working life could have paid this much in prsi contributions.

 

[joe sod]

whose idea was it anyway to allow a person with only 10 years of full prsi contributions to be entitled to a full pension, thats whats really "bonkers". Why was this measure brought in the first place, surely in fairness you should only get full pension if you have at least 20 years of full prsi contributions. If this becomes widely known we are going to have pension migration in order to take advantage of this, move to ireland in your 50s, work 10 years and you have full pension

 

[Conan]

Joe sod, you are correct. There was a proposal to change the rules in 2020 so that all contributors would get 1/30th of a State Pension for each year of PRSI contributions. So if one only had 10years then you would get 10/30ths.
But for some reason that proposal seems to have been shelved. Don’t know why?

 

[Protocol]

Joe Sod,

it used to be a min of 260 weeks conts, i.e. 5 years.

Then in 2012 the minimum was increased to 520 weeks, i.e. 10 years.

Note that as well as having the 520 weeks, you must meet the average condition.

But yes, if you started paying SI aged 55, you could get a full CSP at age 66.

 

[Protocol]

Conan,
that proposal hasn't been shelved.
It was mentioned this week in the Oireachtas, 2021 was mentioned.

 

[joe sod]

Conan,
that proposal hasn't been shelved.
It was mentioned this week in the Oireachtas, 2021 was mentioned.

I also heard the minister saying that the changes would only apply to new entrants to prsi system, therefore it would be many years before it would be effective. I go back to my original point that to provide a pension of 198 euros per week requires a pension fund of 181000. The state will simply not be able to pay for even the old age pension with figures like that especially as the irish state is already highly indebted. Politicians might say pensions are sacrosanct and it seems have played politics with it for years to buy votes. It seems that now they can no longer play politics with it,it would have been so easy to buy off these people yet again, but it appears that they have run out of rope. They will probably try and blame EU fiscal rules for not being able to fix this