Now that the new Government will be honouring its promise to minimum wage earners, that they will not have to pay any income tax, I wish to point out that all pensioners, including minimum pension earners, are losing €80 a year from the total bonus of €512 paid to all workers still in employment.

This is because the bonus of €242 introduced by the Nationalist Government after 1987 was called a “wage supplement”.

While employees receive the full amount of this so-called bonus in two equal payments in March and September, pensioners receive only two-thirds of €242.

Unlike those in employment, pensioners do not receive this bonus in March and September but it is paid to them at a weekly rate of €3.12, which means that pensioners receive €12.48 with every pension cheque, which makes a total of €162 every year. The other part of the bonus of €270, which was introduced pre-1987, is received in full by all pensioners.

To pensioners on or near the lower end of the pension scale, €80 is a significant amount, considering that their income amounts to less than that of minimum wage earners.