Alliance calls for immediate correction to maximum pension cap
The Alliance of Pensioners Organisations that includes the Pensioners Association, has insisted with government on the immediate need to revise the maximum pension cap, using the recent outburst by Chief Justice Vincent Degaetano on judges and magistrates pensions as a clear example of the malaise.
“When it comes to pensions, the political class has highly advantageous arrangements without any cap. These are paid for by taxpayers. The creation of another privileged category in the area of pensions would demolish the dam holding back a truly substantial upward revision of the pension cap in the case of Social Security pensions,” the alliance said.
The alliance, which also includes the GWU and UHM, said that it agreed that members of both benches of the judiciary merited a level of remuneration that tallies with their important public roles, and which excluded other part-time remunerative work. It acknowledged that the level of remuneration may affect the caliber or category of the people who chose to serve in the judiciary.
“The Social Security Pension entitlement of Judges, Magistrates and of those in the professions, business and senior management is in the current sorry state because when the wage and price freeze ended in 1987, successive administrations repeatedly failed to address the problem of the artificial cap of the pension that can be paid.
“This cap on the Maximum Pensionable Income remained unchanged between 1981 and 2004 in spite of the salary revolution the country underwent.
“It only started being increased in 2005 by an annual flat rate Cost of Living addition, which addition reflects inflation at the minimum wage level,” the Alliance of Pensioners Association said, while adding that “the problem, therefore, went beyond that of the judiciary.”
