The Social Solidarity Minister’s statement that pensioners who are now 65 will start receiving the guaranteed national minimum pension (GNMP) within five years of 2016 is surprising because the implementation schedule on page 16 of the Report of the Pensions Strategy Group (PSG) seems to leave no room for doubt.

If the recommendation is implemented as it is drafted, it would mean that pensioners aged 76 and over would start receiving the GNMP in 2016. Thereafter, the qualifying age will decrease by one year annually. Therefore, pensioners aged 75 and over would start receiving the GNMP in 2017, those aged 74 and over in 2018 and so on.

Under the PSG’s arrangement, pensioners attaining their 65th birthday in 2015 would have to be 72 years old to start receiving the GNMP in 2022.

Obviously, the minister’s statement is the more attractive. Who’s right?

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