Plans to scrap state pension payments for people under 55 who have a partner who has officially retired have been put on ice until 2015, news agency ANP reports on Tuesday.

The plan to scrap the payout to younger partners had generated widespread opposition. Many objectors said new claimants would not have enough time to find a job if the benefit was scrapped from next year.
Instead, pensions for the under-55s will be reduced by €50 a month and stopped altogether in 2015.
At the moment pensioners with a younger partner can claim their own state pension of €673 plus up to the same amount for their partner – if they don’t have a job or only work a few hours a week. Some 280,000 people currently do so.