Seán Fleming (Laois, Fianna Fail)
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869. To ask the Minister for Employment Affairs and Social Protection when the pension for persons that reach 67 years of age will be introduced; the arrangements in place for persons that leave work prior to 67 years of age and are on jobseeker's benefit or jobseeker's allowance prior to that; the requirements for this period of payment before the State pension (contributory) comes into effect; if persons that are on illness benefit can claim this from 64 years of age in circumstances in which they were born in March 1955; if this can continue up to the new pension date; if they will be required to transfer to jobseeker's benefit or jobseeker's allowance for a period prior to reaching 67 years of age; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [30430/18]

Regina Doherty (Meath East, Fine Gael)
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The Social Welfare and Pensions Act 2011 provided that State pension age will be increased gradually to 68 years. This began in January 2014 with the abolition of the State pension (transition) which was available to people aged 65 who satisfied the qualifying conditions. This measure standardised the State pension age for all at 66 years. This will increase to 67 in 2021 and to 68 in 2028.

The purpose of these changes is to make the pension system more sustainable in the context of increasing life expectancy. This has significant implications for the future costs of State pension provision which are currently increasing by roughly €1 billion every 5 years.

There is no statutory retirement age in the State, and the age at which employees retire is a matter for the contract of employment between them and their employers. While such a contract may have been entered into with a retirement date of 65, in the context of the previous State pension arrangements, there is no legal impediment to the employer and employee agreeing to increase the duration of employment for one or more years, if both parties wish to do so.

Where a person exits the workforce before reaching State pension age they may apply for either the jobseeker’s benefit or jobseeker’s allowance schemes. Jobseeker’s payments are paid to eligible jobseekers aged 18 to 66 years subject to the rules of the scheme. A decision to change the jobseekers schemes in the context of the increased pension age would be a matter for Government to consider in a budgetary context.

Illness benefit is a payment made to insured people who; are unable to work due to illness; satisfy certain PRSI contribution conditions and are under pensionable age. The legislative provision governing the qualifying age is covered under s.40(1)(a) of the Social Welfare Consolidation Act 2005 and a person is entitled to illness benefit where “the person is under pensionable age on the day for which the benefit is claimed”. There are no proposals to amend the wording in respect of the age requirement so a person would be entitled to illness benefit, subject to satisfying the other conditions in respect of illness and contributions conditions, until their entitlement to illness benefit exhausts or they reach pension age, whichever is earliest.

I trust this clarifies the matter for the Deputy.