The way pensioners are informed of their annual earnings leaves much to be desired. The Department of Social Services (DSS) has seen fit to include on the same page, the last six or seven four-weekly payments of the past year together with the same amount of entries for the current year.

What the pensioner requires, both as an earner and a taxpayer, is a listing of 13 payments spanning January to December of the current year, including a total, and an indication of any bonuses and tax deduction per payment.

Moreover, full bonuses similar to those of full-time workers could be awarded in March, June, September and December, the respective amounts being €121, €135, €121 and €135. Any excess amount in the two €121 bonuses to pensioners could be deducted from the variable January payment.

(The January variable payment was introduced for the purpose of awarding a full cost-of-living adjustment on a par with that of full time workers.)

Another shortcoming of the DSS is its manner of deducting taxes, to the extent that a good number of pensioners are not having the right amount of tax deducted, thus defying the Financial Settlement System (FSS) introduced to make sure that government income is assured on a month by month basis rather than en masse at the end of the year.

Also, since tax is not deducted from Treasury service pensions, taxation from this source remains uncollected by the DSS so that, in the case of this category of pensioners, we have the classic case of the right hand (the DSS) not knowing what the left hand (the Treasury) is doing.

These people would then receive a hefty income tax bill at the end of the year - a situation which could and should be avoided, if the left and right hands work together.