RETIRING AGED 65? DON’T BANK ON A PENSION... YET

QWhat does the recent court case win over forced retirement at 65 mean? Do I still have to retire at 65 when my old age pension doesn’t apply until 66? If I do retire, what am I expected to live on?

AOne of the biggest blows of austerity, brought in with hardly a peep of protest, was the increase in retirement age to 66, to be followed by further increases to 67 and 68 as follows:

This has huge financial and social implications as most employers seem to have no intention of letting people work for the extra year(s) that will see them through to a pension.

The Employment Equality Acts does ban age discrimination, although employers are allowed to set a retirement date for employees, usually in their contracts. If there isn’t a retirement age set in your contract of employment, you may have grounds to make a claim for discrimination on the grounds of age.

As you saw, a veteran barman recently won such an age discrimination award of €6,500 from the operators of Knock Airport, mainly because his contract of employment did not contain a retirement age.

If your contract does specify a retirement age of 65, on reaching it you will have to apply for job seeker’s benefit or allowance of €193 a week (maximum), instead of a contributory pension of €230 a week.

To get either the benefit or allowance you have to be actively seeking work.

However, the Department of Social Protection does make some allowances for older job-seekers:

Anyone over 62 won’t be liable for sanctions such as temporary withdrawal of benefit for non-compliance with the activation rule – e.g. attending assigned courses.

You may get payments electronically transferred to your bank account and may not need to sign on more than once a year.

People over 65 who are claiming Jobseeker’s Benefit, and who have at least 156 PRSI contributions, can continue to receive Jobseeker’s Benefit until their 66th birthday even if their claim is due to end before that date. If you have a private pension which kicks in at 65, you can always activate that.

However, if you don’t have enough stamps to qualify for Jobseeker’s Benefit, the fallback option is Jobseeker’s Allowance, which is means tested.

It may be reduced or withheld if you have another source of income.

QI took out an Ulster Bank mortgage in 2008. I was told it was not eligible as a tracker because it was buy-to-let. I never checked as we were just happy to get the new mortgage. On clearing out some old paperwork, I saw our loan offer states a tracker rate of ECB +1.15%. How do I find out if we are due a refund?

AThere is a tracker mortgage scandal involving people who should have got trackers but didn’t get them. The Central Bank estimates this could involve 15,000 people and it has told the banks to write to those affected.

First, contact Ulster Bank. If your case is eligible for the redress scheme, the bank may not have got around to it yet or it may not be aware of it. If you’re then unhappy with the bank’s response make an official complaint to it.

Unfortunately, if that doesn’t work, you seem to be outside the six-year time limit for complaints to the Financial Services Ombudsman and would have to seek redress through the courts.

This time limit really should be changed as many financial service misdemeanours don’t come to light for years after they are committed – yet their impact can last decades. This rule prevented the Ombudsman from helping a huge number of people affected by the Payment Protection Insurance scandal, for example.