The Alliance of Pensioners Organisation refers to the editorial titled ‘Service pensioners’ lost battle’ (March 17).
The decision made by the European Courts of Justice has nothing to do with the merits of the case, that is whether a service pension should be deducted from one’s two-thirds pension entitlement. The arguments and the decision were based on other legal technicalities.
Thus, pensioners entitled to a service pension, including those who receive a service pension from the UK, lost a battle not the war. In 2007, a meeting took place between members of our organisation and the government about the unjust practice of deducting a service pension from the two-thirds pension entitlement.
An agreement was reached between the parties concerned that, in principle, a pension awarded to an employee for service rendered to an employer (service pension) should not be abated from a social security two-thirds pension.
Discussions were also carried out about the fact that, due to the financial implications involved, the problem should be addressed over a period of time as agreed between the parties.
In fact, the administration started the ball rolling and, in the 2008 Budget, the first measure was implemented.
The amount of €466 from service pension entitlement was no longer considered to be deducted from the two-thirds pension entitlement.
The present administration retained the concession to deduct €200 annually and, presently, the original amount of €466 went up to €1,866. The alliance will continue to press further until the agreement reached in 2007 will be honoured over a proper and reasonable timeframe.
Negotiations are taking place to award a service pension to members of the judiciary. This is a positive step and the alliance supports the measure.
However, it is expected that, concurrently with these negotiations, the government should also embark on a mission to solve once and for all the problem of thousands of pensioners entitled to a service pension.
As pointed out in this paper, this social injustice was perpetrated for the past 37 years. It is true elderly pensioners expect better and the government should demonstrate it is willing to right the wrongs.
We also demand that both political parties should not continue to take us for a ride and state clearly their intentions on this delicate problem without further delay.