Until last year a pensioner could work and earn not more than the national minimum wage until he reached 65 years of age. No ceiling existed for pensioners aged 65 years or over. No payment of social security contributions was due by the working pensioners.
Given that the government announced changes in this system in this year's budget, I phoned Castille to be informed of these changes. I was informed that now a pensioner could claim his pension on reaching retirement age and continue working without any restrictions on income earned from employment. This is very good, I thought, but where is the catch?
The catch is this: A working pensioner (who claims his pension in 2008) would now be liable to pay social security contributions on his employment even though this will not offer him any social insurance at all given that he/she is already a pensioner. This is nothing less than a new tax aimed at government recouping back what it gave to pensioners in the last budget.
Is this the new way of doing politics?