No further tax on pensions

Regarding the letter ‘Unfair pensions’ (Dec 13), the Minister for Social Protection has not announced and has no plans to announce “a further tax from 10% to 20% on all private pensions above €12,000 per annum”. This is absolutely incorrect.

For many years certain pension schemes known as Defined Benefit schemes have been in significant difficulty. These difficulties mean that in some affected schemes, workers have lost very significant amounts of the pensions to which they were supposed to be entitled upon retirement.

The minister recently announced new provisions for Defined Benefit pension schemes which will be contained in the Social Welfare and Pensions Bill (No.2) 2013. These changes are aimed at ensuring a fairer deal for workers yet to get their pensions and sufficient protection for retired persons already in receipt of their pensions.