Sir, – Sheila Gorman (June 20th) highlighted the fact that she will not have a State pension on retirement from her job at the age of 65 due to an increase in qualifying age for the State pension to 66, effective from 2014. The loss of anticipated income is not the only difficulty she and others in her circumstances will face.
From 2014, individuals will also lose the credited social insurance contributions currently provided by the transition pension. These credits help individuals to maintain entitlement to treatment benefit and to qualify for State pension (contributory). Unless the Minister for Social Protection makes new arrangements before 2014, the only route open to individuals who want to maintain a complete social insurance record between the ages of 65 and 66 will be to sign on for job seekers’ benefit.
The Minister needs to adopt a much more proactive approach to informing citizens about the implications of changes to the State pension system and her department’s plans for dealing with those changes. That is a minimum requirement. – Yours, etc,