Submission 199

April 08

With regard to the current pension system in Ireland, I would like to highlight the inequity of tax relief for stay-at-home parents. I am concerned that there is no tax incentive for a husband/wife to pay pension contributions on behalf of a ‘stay-at-home’ partner.

In the case of my own family, my wife has taken a career break for a number of years in order to care for our children at home. As a result, she will have a significant gap in pension contributions, resulting in an inferior pension at retirement. I was surprised to discover that, if I were to pay pension contributions on her behalf, such payments would not be eligible for any tax relief.

It is my belief that a family income should be regarded as such and that any payments made into a pension scheme for a ‘stay-at-home’ parent should be eligible for tax relief. Otherwise ‘stay-at-home’ parents – usually women – will continue to be penalised for caring for children at home. They will tend to opt out of pension schemes and will suffer the financial consequences later in life.

I would appreciate if this inequity could be addressed in the forthcoming Green Paper.