The number of complaints received by the Pensions Ombudsman has risen by 76 per cent this year, with a significant number of cases relating to the construction sector.
Launching the ombudsman's 2008 annual report today, Minister for Social and Family Affairs Mary Hanafin refused to rule out the possibility that a single tax relief rate of 33 per cent on pension contributions may be introduced in next week's Budget.
Ms Hanafin said this measure, which was proposed in the revised programme for government, should be viewed as part of the National Pensions Framework, which has yet to be published and is unlikely to be implemented before 2014.
However she added that tax reliefs can be changed by the Minister for Finance in any budget. "The Minister could do it next week," she said.
Pensions ombudsman Paul Kenny said about 15 per cent of the complaints received by his office now relate to the construction sector. In some these cases, employers deducted pension contributions from their employee's wages but did not remit them to the pension schemes.
Apart from being "nothing short of theft", it can also mean that families of building workers who have died, sometimes in workplace accidents, find that they are not entitled to any benefits, he said.
The flow of complaints from the construction industry has been particularly heavy this year as people have been losing their jobs in the sector, he noted. While in employment, many workers were afraid "to put their heads above the parapet", while others, particularly foreign nationals, didn't understand their pension rights.
During 2008, the ombudsman received 758 new complaints, a 47 per cent jump
from the previous year. Mr Kenny said that 40 per cent of complaints came
from the public sector, with the remainder coming from the private sector.