The WRC recommended €10,000 compensation for an employee whose retirement plans were disrupted by incorrect pension advice. The recommendation was dated 21 August 2017 and concerned distress caused by the error, not a change to her statutory pension entitlement.
In 2004, the employee was told she could buy 17 additional pension years through salary deductions. In 2014, as she planned to retire, she learned she could have bought only nine. She had overpaid €34,950, which was refunded with deductions, and her expected lump sum and annual pension were lower than she had anticipated. She said she had to postpone retirement and asked the employer to honour the original arrangement.
The education body accepted that an error had been made but said scheme rules required it to correct the entitlement. The officer found the employee had relied on the pension manager’s advice and annual statements for ten years, and that the error affected her retirement plans. She had also received €1,346 from the Pensions Ombudsman.