The Social Welfare and Pensions Act, 2011 was signed into law on 29 June 2011 which made certain changes in relation to future State pension provision.
This amendment will have an impact on the existing State pension provisions. In particular, the State Pension (Transition) for new claimants will be discontinued with effect from 1 January 2014.
There will be a standard State Pension age of 66 years for everyone from 1 January 2014.
In addition, the Social Welfare and Pensions Act, 2011 provides for an increase in the age for qualification for the State Pension from 66 years to 67 years from 2021 and a further increase to 68 years from 2028.
With these recent developments, it is now more important than ever to ensure that you have adequate private pension provision and continue to benefit from the tax efficiency of pension contributions including AVCs.