Sir, – I was a member of a defined benefit (DB) pension scheme for over 25 years from 1985 to 2010, when the company was sold to a new owner and the DB pension scheme was closed down. Instead of being entitled to a pension of two-thirds of my final salary on retirement of €30,000, I was given the cash equivalent in a defined contribution pension scheme worth €5,000 a year. This was in my mid-50s. I will never be able to make up that pension loss.
Then in 2011, the then-government decided to help themselves to some of what was left of my paltry private pension in the form of the 0.6 per cent levy on the assets of my pension. Given it was such easy pickings, that government then decided to extend this levy for a further four years, increasing to 0.75 per cent in 2014.
Then the government decided to raise the pension age for me, when I am now in my late fifties. I will now not be entitled to a State pension until I’m 68 years of age.
What is going on in this country? With an election coming, all of a sudden, a review is going to take place. Don’t insult our intelligence. This Fine Gael Government and previous Fianna Fáil governments are a disgrace. They don’t give a damn about the private sector. – Yours, etc,
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SINEAD JACKSON,
Milltown,
Dublin 6.