FG RETIREES DEMAND PENSION REVIEW

Federal government retirees have called on the Government to urgently pay their outstanding 18 per cent of the 33 per cent pension increase

Some officials of the National Union of Pensioners, who spoke to press men , stated this after the organised labour and the Federal Government had agreed to set up a committee to review the current minimum wage of N18,000 in the country.
The union said it was imperative for the government to clear the arrears and commence the process to reviewing the pension of federal retirees as it was making moves to review the minimum wage.
The Chairman, Federal Branch, Lagos, NUP, Dele Joseph, said the demand was in line with the law that the pension of the retirees should be reviewed whenever the minimum wage of workers was reviewed.
“We are appealing to the government to pay us the outstanding 18 per cent of the 33 per cent increase, because this money has been delayed for a long time. The year is fast coming to an end and the retirees will appreciate if they can be paid this money to enjoy the festive period in December,” he stated.

According to him, the recent verification exercise of retirees by the Pension Transitional Arrangement Directorate, will enable the Federal Government to know the amount needed to clear all other pending problems confronting retirees such as those who are not on pay roll and short-paid retirees among others.
The Vice-Chairman of the union, Arashi Lawal, said retirees had continued to visit government secretariats with different complaints.
He stated that it was important to clear the backlog of the 33 per cent and immediately commence the review of pensions, which was long overdue.
The NUP had demanded a minimum pension of N25,000 for each retiree.
The National President, NUP, Dr. Abel Afolayan, noted that the situation where different minimum pensions were paid should be corrected and that the approval of the minimum wage applicable to workers should also apply to pensioners.
He said, “It needs to be pointed out here that very many pensioners under the Defined Benefits Scheme receive less than N10,000 per month. This can never be regarded as minimum (or living) pension.
“With the present economic situation in the country, we believe no pensioner should be paid less than N25,000.”
Afolayan complained about the non-compliance with the constitutional provision stipulating that pensions should be reviewed every five years or whenever the civil service salary was reviewed, whichever was earlier.
“The last pension review was in July 2010; the next increase, in accordance with the provisions of the 1999 Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria (as amended), was due in July 2015,” he added.
Source: ( Punch Newspaper