Pension schemes are back in the headlines. For readers who have still some years to go to reach their pension age, I can assure them that, when they do so, they are in for a great shock both psychologically and financially.

The former is quite complex and I am not competent to address it, however, I would like to put forward my suggestion for consideration on the latter.

The maximum that we (Maltese) are entitled to when we reach our pensionable age is less than €1,000 per month, contrary to the parliamentarians who get two thirds of their salary (why I do not know), even though we pay our taxes to the last cent during our 40 years of work.

Therefore, unless we prepare for this big transition in our life by saving or properly investing our money, we have to say goodbye to our present standard of living and try to manage on less than €1,000 a month.

My suggestion to the government is to reduce taxes for pensioners.

If the government cannot afford to give us two-thirds of our salary, then, at least, it should raise our tax ceiling by doubling it (from €11,900 to €23,800 for joint declarations and from €8,500 to €17,000 for single) and stop the 15 per cent tax on our interests and investments.

After all, we worked hard and even made sacrifices all our lives to save this money and invest so that when we retire we would, at least, be able to live a decent life.

Why should we be asked to pay more for our sacrifices?

I am very curious to know how much my suggestion will cost the government and whether it can easily be offset by curtailing the evasion of income tax and VAT.