Written answers

Tuesday, 8 October 2019

Department of Employment Affairs and Social Protection

State Pension (Contributory)

Photo of Brian StanleyBrian Stanley (Laois, Sinn Fein)
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470. To ask the Minister for Employment Affairs and Social Protection the progress on the changes to calculating PRSI entitlements for the State pension (contributory); and the effects of the changes. [40743/19]

Photo of Regina DohertyRegina Doherty (Meath East, Fine Gael)
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The introduction of a Total Contributions Approach (TCA) to establishing the level of entitlement for all new state pension contributory claims was signalled by the then Government in the National Pensions Framework in 2010. At that time it set a target date of 2020 for the implementation of TCA. More recently, the Roadmap for Pensions Reform 2018-2023 targeted implementation of the TCA from Q3 of 2020. This is subject to the necessary legislation being enacted and supporting structures being in place.

Consultation is a very important part of the development and design of the new pension. With this in mind, I launched a public consultation on the design of the TCA on the 28th of May 2018 to which a wide variety of stakeholder groups were invited. A number of workshops were also held on the day to elicit views and feedback.

Shortly afterwards, Oireachtas members were invited to a detailed briefing by my officials in Leinster House. The consultation was open for over three months and the Department received almost 300 responses from individuals and organisations. Those submissions outlined the views of respondents on the issues of most interest to them.

Having carefully examined the outputs of the consultation process, my Department is now designing the scheme and I intend to bring a proposal to Government setting out that design in the near future. When the Government has agreed the approach to be taken, I will initiate the work required to introduce this reform.

I hope this clarifies the matter for the Deputy.

Comments

Monica Condron
Posted on 9 Oct 2019 9:28 pm (Report this comment)

Brian if you would like to know exactly how this works please feel free to get in contact with me. I have been assessed under the total contributions scheme for those affected by Budget 2012. Under the averaging system I had 1932 contributions based over 49 years and this gave me an average of 39.43 years and this left me on the 3rd band rate at €223.20 on today's rate. I also had 261 moderated contributions from 6 years working in CIE but these are not counted towards a state pension. Following a pension review I received a rate of €234.50 based on 1964 contributions giving me 37.77 years contributions (contributions from year of retirement included under the total contributions scheme). You might think I should be grateful for any rise in my pension but if the Budget 2012 pension rate band changes had been reversed I would be receiving €243.40 Fine Gael will be loathe to introduce the new system before an election because it is going to cause one hell of a s--tstorm.

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