Submission 116

March 2008

Green Paper submission

While I agree that pensions will need to be funded in a totally different way in the future, they will also need to be distributed in a different way to take account of the many anomalies in the current State Contributory Pension. Women in particular are the main victims of a society who puts very little value on the role of the homemaker. Many women who worked in the Civil Service became victims of the marriage bar, stayed at home, reared large families and then went on to care for elderly parents. When the elderly parents passed on, the carer may have received an inheritance (perhaps not very large). This would not only have de-barred them from a pension in their own right but also excluded them from the qualified adult portion of a husbands pension. This I believe is not an appropriate way to treat the carers of the nation.

Homecarers Years need to be back-dated to include many of the current pensioners who cannot avail of those disregards.
The yearly average needs to be reviewed and a basic pension paid to all plus an extra percentage for each 5 or ten years worked.
Women who worked in the Civil Service and were victims of the marriage bar need to have their modified Contributions recognised as full rate Contributions
Retiring age needs to be more flexible thus allowing people the choice of remaining at work and either drawing their pension at the same time or deferring their pension with added bonuses