A new social welfare law reform and pensions act, approved by the Irish legislative body, the Oireachtas, on March 23, 2006, and signed by the president on March 24, 2006, will combine all non-contributory payments for people 66 years of age and older into one standard pension scheme.

The pension scheme will take effect September 2006 and will combine payments such as pensions for blind people, one-parent families and widows and widowers into one standard non-contributory pension scheme.

In addition, the means disregard will increase from 7.60 euros to 20 euros per week. As a result, a single person with up to 35,000 euros in capital and a couple with up to 70,000 euros in capital will qualify for the full pension, if they have no other income. Moreover, to encourage people reaching retirement age to continue working, a special earnings disregard of 100 euros per week will be introduced. The government forecasts that this standard scheme will result in 34,000 pensioners receiving higher pensions.