I refer to the letter ‘Service pension entitlement’ by Carmel Mallia (May 4).

I appreciate Mallia’s efforts so far, even with regard to the ignored portion of €1,866 from the service pension. However, this measure has created discrimination between those being compensated (who have, by now, received €9,994 since January 2008) and those 70,000 uncompensated pensioners mentioned by Mallia, who, from 2008 to date, have not received a single cent.

At the same time, Mallia is bent on approving wholeheartedly a pension for the judiciary even before the pending issue of robbed pensions is settled once and for all. And why only the judiciary? What about those 70,000 in the queue?

As far as I know, the alliance of pensioners is not a trade union. Moreover, each trade union in Malta has a pensioners’ section and, yet, throughout the 37 years of the reduced pension saga there has been a deafening silence from each and every one of them. Are the unions hiding behind the alliance?

The inadequacy of the €1,866 ignored portion is illustrated above. The table refers to a pensioned civil servant born in 1945 with a salary in 2006 of €18,858 immediately prior to retirement. The officer opted for a service pension (SP) equivalent to onehalf of his final salary together with a gratuity.

For the purpose of deducting a portion from the national insurance pension (NIP) the NI Department, according to punitive legislation enacted by Dom Mintoff and effective from January 15, 1979, the NIP and SP are added together with a large portion from the NIP being deducted (robbed).

The cumulative effect of cost-of-living adjustment (COLA) over the years does not come into the equation since this evens out. For the purpose of clarity, this is demonstrated in lines three, four and five.

Age 72 waiver/ignored portion considerations together with the €3,866 ignored portion in 2025 is carried out by the NI Department.

The amount of €1,572 is one half of the difference between the uncommuted SP (€12,572) and the commuted SP (€9,429). The sum of €11,994 is the capping for 2016.

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