Letter of the Day | Will retirees get their pension after they die?

THE EDITOR, Sir:

I feel compelled to share my current experience trying to access my pension benefit for which I applied since October 2017. I have dutifully served the Government for over 30 years.

It’s extremely concerning that persons like me who chose to stay and work in this country are treated so shabbily by the agencies who are responsible for the preparation and disbursement of these benefits that provisions were made for during one’s working life.

If retirement is the withdrawal from one’s position or occupation, or from one’s active working life, then it should follow that a pension is intended to provide a replacement income for qualified retirees and their families. Why are persons like me being denied our retirements then?

I am convinced that something can be done to alleviate the sufferings that retirees have been enduring until the powers that be choose to ensure that these payments are made. Nothing seem to be done to expedite these payments. October 2022 marks exactly five years since I applied for my pension benefits, and I am still waiting. Not one cent has been paid to my account to date and I have been constantly calling and writing to the powers that be since 2018.

Being a retiree means that one no longer receives a monthly salary from which basic expenses are taken care of. I am now totally convinced that it is intended that if retires are denied their payments, then they will die much sooner, thus eliminating the need for a pension to be paid to them. Is this really the intention of the government agencies that carry the responsibility to ensure that “old people” benefit from money that was put aside for their senior years?

WHAT IS WRONG?

What then is wrong with our system in Jamaica? I am now waiting for five years since I applied, and nothing has been received to date. Is five years not a long enough time to collect the relevant information?

I really feel that I have been begging since 2018 and have started to wonder if I’ll ever get this money in my hand during my lifetime. If a problem is detected during the perusal of one’s file, nobody calls for verification. I think that it is safe to say that if one is not persistent and calls regularly for follow-up, then one’s file gets put into file 13. Is it that one must be out of pocket to the extent that they will not be able to buy food; utilities cannot be paid, and the services are disconnected; until they cannot afford doctors’ visits, or be able to fill their prescriptions? In time death would be the ultimate end. Sounds like a recipe for disaster for any retiree who finds themselves in a situation like this.

What I find ironical is the fact that when one graduates and joins the government service, they would be in their early twenties. At that time, he/she is given health insurance coverage and at the end of each cycle half of the benefits are not utilised as persons are enjoying excellent health. You serve the government service for another thirty-plus years and then retire. You either have no insurance coverage while you await your pension or at this time they are living with a chronic disease and health insurance coverage is so meagre that it must be subsidised to meet the health needs of the person.

Something needs to be done to address the plight of retirees in Jamaica. People are suffering as they await pension benefits. Another issue to be considered is the level of taxation that is usually levied on the lump sum payment when it is eventually paid. This is an unjust practice. If persons were paid on time they could choose how and where to invest their money for their own benefit. Retirees are denied this right.

I’m appealing to the Government of Jamaica to intervene. For far too long, pensioners who have made their contributions to nation-building have had to suffer when they get to the stage where they should be benefiting from the sacrifices and provisions made for their later years.

VALERIE NOBLE–MYRIE

Retired Public Health Nurse/

Nurse Educator