The new arrangements will benefit public servants who must currently retire at 65, but who depend on the state old age pension for part of their retirement income. They have faced a problem since the state pension age was increased from 65 to 66.

 

Public servants recruited after 1st April 2004 are not affected because they either have a retirement age of 70 already, or they have no compulsory retirement age.

 

The education department has clarified that, under interim arrangements, certain education staff can continue in work until the end of the school or academic year in which they reach age 66. This was on foot of a request for clarification from Fórsa deputy general secretary Kevin Callinan.

 

Press reports last November predicted that the new measure would mean a compulsory increase in the retirement age for all civil and public servants. It does not.

 

Fórsa had been working to resolve the plight of public servants who are forced to retire at age 65, but who cannot access the state pension until they are 66. Discussions with the Department of Public Expenditure and Reform took place under the Public Service Stability Agreement (PSSA), which was backed the union’s members in ballots last year.

 

Pending the enactment of legislation to introduce the change, unions and management have agreed limited interim arrangements to allow public servants who want to stay in work until the state pension age to be re-hired. Under these interim arrangements, staff can retire and receive their lump sum, before being re-hired in their current role.

 

However, they will be placed on the first point of the non-pensionable pay scale, and they will not make further pension contributions. Although this arrangement is not ideal, it means that public servants won’t be forced to retire before they are due payment of their full pension.