Age Action has welcomed plans by Minister for Enterprise, Trade and Employment Micheál Martin to give people the option of working beyond the age of 65. Age Action, the agency which lobbies for the elderly, said such a move would help the State, employers and older workers if carefully implemented.
It would oppose, however, any move to increase the official pension entitlement age. Its director of advocacy, Eamonn Timmins, said: "If the Government is serious about encouraging workers to continue working beyond 65, it could allow workers to draw down some of their pension once they reach 65.
"It could also allow them the option of deferring their pensions and then receiving an enhanced pension when they opt to draw it down."
In an interview in The Sunday Business Post, the Minister said he had asked department officials to develop a policy paper on the barriers to people continuing to work once they reached 65, and was considering allowing people to access some of their pension if they worked beyond 65. The number of people aged 65 or over is expected to treble to 1.5 million in the next two decades.
Age Action also calls for the scrapping of the current State pension, which prevents people remaining on in employment between 65 and 66. It also calls for those who work beyond 65 to be allowed to pay a stamp for each extra year they work, contributing towards qualification for a full State pension.
This would benefit workers who had broken service, especially women who have taken time out from employment to raise their family and do not qualify for a full pension at 65.
Age Action believes a more flexible approach to retirement would also enable public and private-sector employers to retain their most experienced workers.
