Governments lament on the high expenditure of social contributions, especially pensions. Little do they realise pensions are not gifts or rewards given from kindness of heart. Pensions are the obligatory payments for a lifetime of sweat and service to the country.

Pensioners work hard to gain promotions to secure adequate remuneration. Very few do. Having lasted the arduous pace of keen competition in the office, they aspire to a peaceful retirement.

They had raised a brood of children whose exemplary upbringing and education are assets to the national wealth.

Many pensioners do not put demands on government institutions, look unfavourably on retirement homes, do not even know the inside of the law courts and certainly have not been to prison. They might be forced to seek hospital treatment. They are not a burden and good citizenship calls for rewards.

Pensioners are physically fragile; their brains as brittle as broken promises and as forgetful as their creeping dementia. To this must not be added the daily worries of fulfilling their daily needs and necessities. Their only source of income is their pension. Adequate pensions sow smiles and clear the cobwebs of dismal thoughts and forebodings.

Yet, governments mete out punishments. A long time ago, pensioners had been robbed of a fund they had subscribed to. They were never compensated.

Nowadays, governments downgrade pensioners to misery when they need most help. The annual cost of living increase is an insult. The pension received years before had lost all its value. They struggle to make both ends meet. But they never do. Octogenarians who suffered wartime starvation survived not because they were brave but because they were resilient. Must governments dump them in the same situation of dire needs of wartime Malta?

Now let me turn this lament into a heartfelt plea: Please, Edward try to remember that ‘young’ schoolmaster and other pensioners when you come to draw the coming Budget.