“The State pension system is not sustainable and there is no getting away from that fact…. And there are no easy options” – Heather Humphreys, Minister for Social Protection, February 2022
The Pensions Commission in their report to the Government in October 2021 made the following points
- Currently there are 4.5 workers for every pensioner
- By 2050 the ratio will be 2-1
- By 2030 the annual shortfall in meeting the cost will be €2.3bn
Professor Alan Barrett, Director of the ESRI endorsed the need for change to take place when he commented “It’s not really that complicated – we can either, reduce the benefits… , pay more in tax or social insurance…. or we can raise the pension age. Politicians clearly are very, very…. reluctant to increase the pension age but the mathematics just won’t go away”
Please click here or on image below for a useful working example of how you might reduce your tax liability and become less reliant on the state pension by having your own private provisions in place.
Further useful information can be found in the Revenue Pension Manual – please see – https://www.revenue.ie/en/tax-professionals/tdm/pensions/index.aspx