The Minister for Family and Social Solidarity Michael Farrugia, has said today that people on reaching retirement age will no longer have to complete an application and apply for their pension, as a new system being started will inform those of retirement age that their pension application has automatically been set up for them.

This new system will start from this coming Monday, the 19 of May and takes effect for those who reach retirement age in August.

The Minister said that the person entitled to the pension may be requested to submit details that could be missing from the Department’s system, especially from the previous year, such as an FS3, receipts and details of Social Security contributions, and bank account details for where the pension is to be deposited.

To expedite the process the applicant can take their documents to the local district office or electronically through eID.

The Minister also announced today, that as from next June the simplified system will be extended to include widows, who are eligible for the pension of their spouse, and who will therefore not have to apply for a pension.

The idea, Minister Farrugia said, is that the Department of Social Security continues to work on the plan that we designed for simplifying procedures, “and during the remainder of this year, others, including people who marry and usually have to apply for the marriage grant, applicants for the invalidity pension, and those who have their first child, will no longer have to make an application.”

Mr Farrugia said that the Government was fulfilling its election promise to give a full pension to those who choose to continue working, as well as not to increase the pension age.

Permalink: Simplification of state pensions with automatic applications set up