Claudine Housen, Staff Reporter
GOLDING
WESTERN BUREAU:
GOVERNMENT PENSIONERS are losing the race with inflation, says Leader of the Opposition, Bruce Golding. To counter this trend, he said, the funds need professional management.
The Opposition Leader was speaking last Saturday to a gathering of more than 100 teachers at the inaugural East Central St. James Education Council awards function, at the Wyndham Rose Hall Hotel.
MEANINGLESS PENSION
"Pensions for public sector workers today is a budgetary provision (which means that) every year we put something in the budget and say this is to provide pension for government workers," Mr. Golding said. "(However,) because it is determined by budgetary provision it means that over time your pension can become meaningless because it is tied to your salary at the time when you were working and if the value of money depreciates you will find yourself at a point where that pension can't even deal with groceries."
DON' BE MISLEAD
Citing the 2005 budgetary pension allocation as an example, Mr. Golding advised pensioners not to be mislead by the figures.
"The provision in the budget this year is $ 1.2 billion and when you look at the amount of teachers it has to provide for it amounts to $27, 500 per pension," Mr. Golding said. "Do not get fooled by the average because there are some pensioners that are getting more, particularly those who have retired recently and have retired in higher salary scales. We have teachers who retired ten years ago getting $15,000 a month."
Referring to the disparity between inflation and pensions paid to retirees, Mr. Golding has pointed to the development of professionally managed pension plans for government workers.
"Right now the contribution that civil servants make goes into Mr. Davies' Consolidated Fund it is not invested in anything," Mr. Golding said. "If that contribution was put into a pension fund that was properly managed pensioners would get better returns."
"We need to get to a stage where we create professional pension plans for government workers where their contribution together with the government contribution goes into a fund that is professionally managed and properly invested so that as they get older and inflation moves they can be assured that their investment can give them a return for their pension that will keep them in line with, if not ahead of inflation."
