Some letters have recently been published, in time for the next Budget, to remind us that the injustice related to holders of occupational pensions is still uncorrected.

In 1979, occupational pensions were abolished and since then, only parliamentarians are permitted one. The injustice is made even worse because those who have a foreign occupational pension have this deducted from their Maltese state retirement pension entitlement - a sort of state-imposed punishment.

For many years, this injustice has seriously affected ex-British servicemen, but now it also affects individuals who have worked abroad for some years and returned to Malta to continue working.

Since 1979, Maltese pension law acts against the spirit and practicalities of the free movement of labour within the EU, where one expects to retain all the bits of occupational and/or state retirement pensions acquired during one's working life.

Thirty years later, this state-imposed injustice on some of its citizens has still not been redressed, on the pretext of a lack of funds. However, there are ample funds for the bulk of our welfare state expenditure to remain non-means-tested (unlike some other EU countries).

To rub salt into the wound, some serious tax fraud (probably the tip of the iceberg) was exposed and apparently treated very lightly. Politicians should perhaps be a bit more cautious when they declare that our state continues on the right course at a steady pace, when 20 per cent of those over 65 may be facing the risk of poverty.