Sinn Féin General Election candidate for Roscommon/Galway Claire Kerrane has expressed frustration at the fact that thousands of pensioners including 606 in County Roscommon who have been wrongly receiving reduced State Pensions since 2012 will not see that lost money returned to them.
The 2012 changes were made to the calculation of the State Pension by Fine Gael and the Labour Party and has resulted in over 42,000 pensioners losing up to €35 weekly, she said.
Ms. Kerrane said: “Pensioners were very clear when they protested outside Leinster House last week, they wanted to see the reversal of the 2012 changes and they wanted the money they had wrongfully lost given back to them.
“The Government, in the solution brought forward by them on Tuesday, has failed to do this.
“The new system will be implemented from March 30th but any back money will only apply from that date, and not from 2012 when the anomaly was introduced.
“While the long-awaited action by Government on this matter is welcome, we must recognise too that pensioners will be bitterly disappointed not to receive what was taken from them since 2012”.
