Prime Minister Mia Mottley believes the age at which politicians get a pension should be raised “significantly” from 50 years old while the age should be reduced for police and some other categories of workers.
And she has expressed the hope that the pensionable age for prime ministers and other politicians will be addressed by the Parliamentary Reform Commission in its report which is due to be handed over by the end of the year.
Currently, a prime minister automatically qualifies for a full pension once he or she demits office, while members of the House of Assembly are eligible for pension at the age of 50, or get two-thirds of their salary in pension after two terms in office. In the case of the police, firemen and prison officers, the retirement age is 67.
“On this matter of political pensions, I thank [Minister of Labour] Colin Jordan who made public my own position. I feel it should be increased from 50, but the reality is that we have a Parliamentary Reform Commission that we established and part and parcel of its remit is to look at the terms and conditions as well,” Mottley told a press conference on Friday at Ilaro Court.
When asked what she believed was the ideal age for prime ministers and other politicians to receive a pension, she declined to give a specific age, but insisted, “I know it can’t be 50 and I know it can’t be [near] 50 either, so I will wait for them to decide…. I am not necessarily popular when I say this, but I believe it has to go up significantly.”
She pointed out that some politicians contributed to the NIS prior to entering politics and it was, therefore, not fair to compare them with the rest of the population when it came to pension contributions and benefits.
Even so, she said, “because life expectancy has increased, I believe that age [should increase].”
At the same time, she stressed the retirement age should not be as high as the wider population, given that politicians did not get the same NIS benefits as those whose contribution rate was just over 18 per cent.
“A member of parliament contributes to their pension at a rate of 17.1 per cent, just like a self-employed person, but we can’t draw sickness benefit, we don’t draw invalidity benefit, we don’t draw all of those severance payments.
“If a minister is fired tomorrow, they don’t get to go before the Employment Rights Tribunal…. They have no similar benefits like the others,” she explained.
Mottley announced that a special committee would soon be established to review several categories of workers to lower the pensionable age for those segments of the population.
She singled out police, agriculture workers and those who do landscaping, among those who should be considered for a pensionable age lower than the current 67 years.
“The Government has agreed that we will appoint a committee to look at those categories of workers for whom earlier retirement in a fair way ought to be a consideration. I asked the public, therefore, to let us go into this process of having that committee review those categories of jobs. I imagine it will take probably about three or four months, but that committee will be announced shortly and that process will take some time,” the Prime Minister said.
At the end of last month, the Government announced that the pensionable age would go up from 67 years to 67 ½ years in 2028 and then to 68 years in 2034. The number of contributions required for an individual to be eligible for an NIS pension will also increase from 500 (about 10 years) to 750 (about 15 years).
The age for early retirement will also move from 60 to 61 years in 2025, 62 years in 2028 and 63 years in 2031. Individuals who are 60 years and older by January 1, 2024, will not be affected by the changes. (MM)
