Triple boost for thousands of public sector pensioners

The increases will see some retired public sector workers getting an annual increase in their income of €1,000.

The big gains for retired nurses, civil servants and teachers will come from a further unwinding of cuts to their pensions in the austerity budgets. They are set to get around €500 restored to their pension payments from the start of next year.

They will also benefit from Budget moves to lower universal social charge (USC) rates.

The USC changes could be worth €350 to someone with a large pension of €70,000.

And many of them are due the extra €5 week in State pension payment. Once it kicks in over a full a year, this amounts to €260.

Retired gardaí, lecturers and other public servants were hit by huge cuts in their pensions under the 2009 Financial Emergency Measures in the Public Interest (FEMPI).

But now some 90,000 retired public service pensioners are set to benefit from another restoration of some of the reductions.

A spokesman for the Department of Public Expenditure and Reform said there was a gain of €400 last year when some of the cuts were restored. The gain this January will be bigger.

And in January 2018, all who had a pension of over €34,132 and were hit by pensions cuts will be fully restored to their original payments.