Carmel Mallia, president of the National Council for the Elderly, sought a clarification (February 2) about a comment that was made by Minister Chris Said that “service pensions would be reformed so that beneficiaries would start receiving their whole dues without any deductions”.
With the same aim of seeking clarification, I would also like to ask a direct question, namely, whether the reform expressed by the minister is intended to be achieved by the complete deletion of the Twelfth Schedule to the Social Security Act (Chapter 318), which is an embodiment of a notorious discrimination against persons who receive a pension from another source, local or foreign, besides that under the Social Security Act.
I had explained this in an article titled Pensioners Suffering From Discrimination, which had appeared in The Times on December 28, 2010.
Pensioners suffering from this discrimination would undoubtedly welcome enlightenment on this matter either from the minister or from Simon Busuttil, so closely involved in the Nationalist Party electoral programme.