Elderly deprived of full pension should be compensated - AD

Alternattiva Demokratika called on government to compensate pensioners who failed to receive the full amount they were entitled to.

Referring to former workers of the Malta Electricity Board, AD's spokesperson for social policy Angela Deguara said that in the 1960s, two Cabinet decisions and an official circular issued by the Board of Directors made it clear that these workers were identical to government employees and that they would be entitled to the same pension conditions.

"However, these pensioners were never given their rightful pension. Their rights have been ignored by six Prime Ministers. A recent court ruling, in fact, has admitted that these pensioners should have been given equivalent pension entitlements like those given to government employees but, because the case has become prescribed, the court could not enforce this right," Deguara said.

She said that government should now take the necessary action to ensure that social justice is done with these pensioners.

AD's spokesman on EU affairs Arnold Cassola highlighted other existing pension anomalies. He referred to the disabled people's pension which amounts to only 55% of the minimum wage.

Cassola said a second anomaly was that a person working on two part-time jobs has a pension based on two-thirds of only one part-time job.  "This amounts to the minimum pension. There is no option of paying contributions for both part-time jobs.  This discrimination is unjust," he said.

He said that a third strong anomaly concerns pensioners, such as former Barclays and British public or military service employees, who have had their foreign government or private company pension subtracted from their Maltese pension by the Government in the 1970s.

"Subsequent governments in the past 25 years have not redressed this injustice.  Such pensioners should be compensated for their loss of pension," Cassola added.

On his part, AD chairperson Michael Briguglio said that the Green Party was addressing these injustices in its electoral manifesto.

"In particular we are calling for compensation for pensioners for having been deprived of the pension they were due. We are also calling for a review of the disability pension to ensure a decent quality of life. Progressive revenue measures could make up for such costs," Briguglio said.