Pension Promise Campaign 2023

The Pension Promise Campaign is calling on the Government to honour the promise of a state pension rate of at least 34% of average earnings. The Pension Promise Campaign is led by the pension coalition which consists of the ISCP, SIPTU, Age Action, the National Women’s Council and Active Retirement Ireland. The Pension Promise Campaign is part of a wider demand for fair and flexible pensions for all.

Poverty and deprivation are rising for older adults due to high price inflation, with risk of poverty having doubled and consistent poverty more than tripled since 2020.  Older people deserve adequate and secure incomes. It’s no more than they have earned after a lifetime of working, paying taxes and contributing to their communities.

The current maximum weekly rate of the state pension is €265.30, just 28% of average earnings. This falls €53 per week short of the Government’s commitment of 34% (€318 per week) and fails to deliver on the Government’s promise to provide a basic level of pension adequacy.

It is 25 years since the National Pensions Policy Initiative proposed a benchmark of 34% of gross average industrial earnings for the contributory State Pension. Under the Roadmap for Pensions Reform 2018-2023, the Department of Social Protection was asked to develop proposals for a formal benchmark of 34% and to institute a process where future changes in pension rates would be indexed to changes in consumer prices and average wages. The Roadmap for Social Inclusion 2020-2025, which the current programme for government has committed to implement rigorously, states that “this Government has committed to the introduction of a system of benchmarking rates of pension payment both to average wages and to inflation.” Benchmarking is also a recommendation of the Report of the Commission on Pensions.