Duke wants public service pension reform

At a press conference yesterday at PSA’s headquarters, Abercromby Street, Port-of-Spain, Duke said one of the deficiencies of the current pension system was that retired people have to wait several years to collect their pension.

He gave the example of former workers of the National Housing Authority (NHA) and the Housing Development Corporation (HDC) who have suffered tremendously as they await on HDC to address their pension issue.

“Since last year May we have been receiving letters that the pension plan is almost completed that it was the actuaries fault. Now we are hearing it is the fault of Comptroller of Accounts. These workers are out of pocket, they are frustrated, they have to buy medication, they have to survive. We are demanding that the pension department and the Comptroller of Accounts become more technical and that the they update their staff to become more technical and that the resources by which these persons worked to carry out meticulous tasks be upgraded,” he said.

One retired worker, Muata Kosie said he retired from HDC in December 2014 and has been living off his National Insurance Scheme (NIS) pension of $3,000.

“Of that I pay for my vehicle.

Having to pay for my vehicle leaves with a total $700 for the month so my take home is $700 it has been so for the past year.

The gratuity they gave me ran out quite a while now. To date I am at this point very distraught and close to starvation,” he said.

Duke called on the government to do two things within this year to address the deficiencies in the system.

“One should ensure that all pensioners benefit from the survivors benefit which means that if the pensioner dies a spouse or next of kin continues to receive the pension.

The second thing is that all the pensions in the public sector are fixed pension which means if you retire and you’re receiving a pension, your pension would be fixed for life. We wish to recommend that all pensions in the public service and the public sector those pensions be indexed against the inflation and or indexed against the GDP,” he said.

He said all pensioners must receive an increase yearly by nothing less than five percent.

“This ensures all pensioners are not out of pocket again. It ensures all pensioners are able to pay their bills and survive expensive medication,” he said.

Duke said they were giving the government until April to meet with the union.

“That’s when things are going to reach a fever pitch in this country, people have lives to live and if they are not treating it seriously, we will take to the streets and when we take to the streets we would not stop,” he said.