Post 1995 Supplementary pension query

That’s great news, have been following with interest some of the information here as there appears to be a concerted effort to keep details of right s in these areas away from workers. I’ve found a lot of conflicting information and no clear way to actually find out an individuals right.

My spouse is in teaching and post 95, pre 2004 so early enough to be entitled to the 55/35 rule, so she can retire at 55 with full pension (at whatever years she has completed then). however she is supplementary pension also and some advice variously claims she won’t get that part until 60, or 65, or 66. It appears to be advisors getting the 55/35 mixed up with other types of retirement. However it appears impossible to get cast iron proof of what her entitlements are. Has anyone any way to find that out? It’s 10+ years out for us, but we are starting to plan around it now.
 
As she is pre-2004 it is certain that she will not have to wait until 65 to avail of the Supplementary Pension (as long as she meets the standard conditions).

I cannot say with 100% certainty that she will not be eligible at 55 but I am fairly confident that she will not become eligible until 60. Although teachers of that era can optionally take retirement at 55 without actuarial reduction the "normal retirement age" for the scheme remains at 60. It is "optional retirement" rather than "normal retirement" and Supplementary is not payable before normal retirement age. The exception would be in the case of approved ill-health retirement - but only if the person does not qualify for a Social Welfare payment, which would be unusual.
 

I found when working through the new supplementary pension circular, the pensions office were a bit at sea regarding the circular. I brought it to their attention before they were informed about it, and as my employer is distributed across a number of sites with a number of pensions officers, that group were trying their best to understand and correctly implement the circular. That group had a number of questions about the circular and some anomalies and were trying to get answers. In fairness the local pensions officer worked well to understand my case as it was a complicated case, and indeed I think the group of pensions officers were very interested in my retirement as it raised a number of questions. I would have purchased service, so my supplementary pension was based on less years than my pension. I was buying back service and I also had a professional added years claim in, that I am still waiting to be decided, even though there were questions about a pension scheme I was a member in over 25 years ago. Luckily I had the scheme booklet and was able to address their query. I would have patience with the pensions office, they are doing their best, a new circular landed very last minute and they are doing their best to sort through it.

I will probably be working a few days in November so then I will back to the pensions again, to sort out the reduction in supplementary pension for the days worked.

It is unlikely that the pensions office are trying to deny workers their rights as the payment comes from central funds, there is no financial benefit to your employer in denying you access to your full entitlements, indeed it is in their best interests to do the best for you, and I would expect that their work would be the subject of periodic audit as well.

We have a very good CORE system with all the service etc..... correctly recorded. This is a big help and wouldn't be universal across the public sector.

To be fair, our pensions dept were nothing but professional and even my NSSO payslip had the correct finishing salary as payroll ran my last couple of payrolls early so they could send complete information to the NSSO. The lump sum was paid into my bank account the evening I retired, together with 1 days pension.

They even pointed out I would get slightly more from Jobseekers benefit for the first 9 months. But the extra money was not worth the hassle.


Ill put an update post when the supplementary pension is paid. The calculations look correct and I would be happy with them based on some feedback here.
 
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