Pensioners Deserve a Better Deal

A pension act makes it mandatory for workers who have reached the retiring age receive a lump sum of their contribution to the Social Security and National Insurance Trust (SSNIT) after which, they receive monthly allowances based on their contributions.

This arrangement is meant to provide a relief for pensioners so that they do not become liabilities to their families and dependants.

Life after retirement is very difficult and pensioners depend on this meagre remittance for their survival.

Unfortunately, the management of this pension scheme has not been sympathetic when it comes to the payment of their monthly remittance.

Year after year, instead of percentage increase in their allowances, it rather decreases to the discomfort of pensioners.

For instance, it is recalled a couple of years ago the allowance was pegged at 18% but has currently been reduced woefully to 11%. Last year was 10%. Whatever informed this reduction in percentages is best known to management of the scheme.

In other jurisdictions (countries), pensioners are held in high esteem because of their valuable service to their countries. They are well protected and made to enjoy all the privileges until their rest.

This low percentage has affected many of our energetic pensioners and sent most of them to their graves earlier than expected.

For goodness sake, we must reverse this unfavorable condition and accord pensioners their rights in society.

We need to practice what prevails in other jurisdictions by making our pensioners better instead of the current state of worsening their plights and making them a burden to their families and dependants.

It is high time we freed the pension scheme from politics and made it more attractive because retiring from active service is mandatory to all public servants and those in the private sector who subscribed to the scheme.

Our pensioners deserve a better deal!

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