Dublin South West Sinn F\u00e9in TD, Se\u00e1n Crowe, has stated that the Government\u2019s defeat on Sinn F\u00e9in\u2019s D\u00e1il motion on pensions shows that there is a need for a more positive and enlightened approach to senior citizen pensions.<\/p>\n
Crowe said it was wrong that people are being forced to leave their job because their contract ended at the old retirement age of 65, and are then being forced for financial reasons, to sign on an additional year until they reach 66 years of age.<\/p>\n
Deputy Se\u00e1n Crowe said:<\/p>\n
\u201cOur D\u00e1il motion was about fairness and equality. It was about fairness for those obliged to retire at 65, in accessing their State Pension, as opposed to signing on for Jobseekers. It was also about equality for women, giving them an equal pension to men, and it signalled a new approach in tackling the 37% pension gender gap.<\/p>\n
\u201cThankfully we are all living longer and by 2046, 1.4\u00a0million people will be aged over 65. If you compare this to the 530,000 people aged over 65 that were recorded\u00a0in the last census, it is a staggering increase.\u00a0This is a huge challenge, but workers who had expectations and commitments that they could retire at 65 should not be penalised.<\/p>\n
\u201cA worker forced into retirement at the age of 65 under his or her contract, under the current scheme, has to apply for Jobseeker\u2019s Benefit until he or she turns the new retirement age of 66 years. This has caused huge upset as many of these aging workers, having worked all their lives and never before claimed the dole. Yet now, through no fault of their own, they have to go through the indignity of having to sign on until they reach the new designated age of 66 years.<\/p>\n
\u201cI believe that following the debate a clear and positive message has gone out to the thousands of people, particularly women that have been impacted by changes to pension bands and rates made in 2012, and the 5,075 men and women forced onto Jobseekers on retirement. That message is we are listening and the majority of parliamentarians in Leinster House now agree that the current pension system is unfair and needs to change.\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n
ENDS<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Dublin South West Sinn F\u00e9in TD, Se\u00e1n Crowe, has stated that the Government\u2019s defeat on Sinn F\u00e9in\u2019s D\u00e1il motion on pensions shows that there is a need for a more positive and enlightened approach to senior citizen pensions. Crowe said it was wrong that people are being forced to leave their job because their contract […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[272,271,270],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2926","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-equality","category-jobseekers","category-pensions"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/seancrowe.ie\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2926","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/seancrowe.ie\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/seancrowe.ie\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/seancrowe.ie\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/seancrowe.ie\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2926"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"http:\/\/seancrowe.ie\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2926\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2927,"href":"http:\/\/seancrowe.ie\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2926\/revisions\/2927"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/seancrowe.ie\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2926"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/seancrowe.ie\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2926"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/seancrowe.ie\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2926"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}