I have heard from a colleague that the contributory old age pension will require 40 years of paid PRSI contributions in future. Can anyone confirm this ? I will likely have only 37 years approx and that's even if I can endure working until 65 (would prefer to retire at 60). Will my pension be reduced proportionately ? Can anyone post a link to the rules please.
They could be anything between 30 and 40 years. I guess we'll know later this year.
There's a bunch of other rules they will have to sort out too;
They will have to determine what the minimum requirement will be to earn 1 year of National Insurance, for example, minimum weeks worked in a year, and/or minimum amount earned;
Will they keep or scrap the pre-entry credit;
What the rules will be to allow someone to purchase voluntary contribution weeks or years to fill gaps in their record if, for example, someone only worked a few months of the year and weren't getting credited contributions, or if one retires early, or takes a year off from working;
Also, in my opinion, the new rules should guarantee that nobody approaching retirement age soon will be worse off under the new system, so perhaps the old system should continue to be implemented for those approaching retirement age soon who would benefit from that old system.
We'll see what happens!