The topic has appeared many times over the years before in other threads, but I'd be very interested in hearing specifically about the experiences of any post-95 public sector employees who have retired early in the past few years. What I'm really wondering is whether some public sector employers are reluctant to provide the early retiree with the so-called "supplementary pension" or even whether some have refused it and, if so, on what grounds.
Post-95 public sector employees pay class A PRSI and so their pension benefits are "integrated" in the sense that the OAP is actually included with the "occupational" portion of their pension benefits. However, as the OAP part of the pension may not be payable until 66/67/68 (maybe even higher into the future), post-95 public sector employees who retire earlier than this date (but only from age 60 onwards) are meant to be eligible for a "supplementary pension" payment provided that certain qualifying conditions are met (the main ones are that these same employees are not in receipt of other SW payments beyond retirement and they cannot work while in receipt of the supplementary pension - from what I can see it appears that, before an employee can even apply for the supplementary pension they must have exhausted any SW payments that they may be entitled to e.g. Job-seekers benefit beforehand). In essence, the supplementary pension is there to ensure that post-95 employees receive the same pension payment upon early retirement (from 60 onwards) as that which would be received by a pre-95 employee given the same final salary and amount of service.
The pre-95 employee would have payed class D PRSI so their pension is not integrated and they have no entitlement to OAP. In the class D case, upon early retirement at 60 (say), they would receive (final salary)*(years service)/80 as (totally occupational) pension whereas the integrated nature of the post-95 employee pension means that they would only receive a portion of this from the employer directly (as the occupational part) and the remainder would come (or should come) from the "supplementary pension" (but this part would have to be paid by the employer also until OAP age arrives). The supplementary pension portion would then be replaced with the OAP when that time arrives for the employee.
So any post-95 PS early retirees who are willing to share their experiences on this issue would be most welcome, especially as the numbers who will be in this category (including myself hopefully) is only going to rise over time and there is some concern about whether some PS employers are actually willing to pay out this supplementary pension or contesting its payment.
Post-95 public sector employees pay class A PRSI and so their pension benefits are "integrated" in the sense that the OAP is actually included with the "occupational" portion of their pension benefits. However, as the OAP part of the pension may not be payable until 66/67/68 (maybe even higher into the future), post-95 public sector employees who retire earlier than this date (but only from age 60 onwards) are meant to be eligible for a "supplementary pension" payment provided that certain qualifying conditions are met (the main ones are that these same employees are not in receipt of other SW payments beyond retirement and they cannot work while in receipt of the supplementary pension - from what I can see it appears that, before an employee can even apply for the supplementary pension they must have exhausted any SW payments that they may be entitled to e.g. Job-seekers benefit beforehand). In essence, the supplementary pension is there to ensure that post-95 employees receive the same pension payment upon early retirement (from 60 onwards) as that which would be received by a pre-95 employee given the same final salary and amount of service.
The pre-95 employee would have payed class D PRSI so their pension is not integrated and they have no entitlement to OAP. In the class D case, upon early retirement at 60 (say), they would receive (final salary)*(years service)/80 as (totally occupational) pension whereas the integrated nature of the post-95 employee pension means that they would only receive a portion of this from the employer directly (as the occupational part) and the remainder would come (or should come) from the "supplementary pension" (but this part would have to be paid by the employer also until OAP age arrives). The supplementary pension portion would then be replaced with the OAP when that time arrives for the employee.
So any post-95 PS early retirees who are willing to share their experiences on this issue would be most welcome, especially as the numbers who will be in this category (including myself hopefully) is only going to rise over time and there is some concern about whether some PS employers are actually willing to pay out this supplementary pension or contesting its payment.