The agonies of retirees from the Federal Civil Service appear to be getting worse as the Federal Government has failed to release funds for payment of accrued pension rights in the first half of 2024, H1’24, which ended on Sunday.
The FG had reneged for the full year 2023, FY’23, as no funds were released despite budgetary provisions.
The release made in the first quarter of 2023, was for outstanding payments in 2022.
This comes against the backdrop of FG’s failure to implement its policy on the upward review of pension amounts under the Contributory Pension Scheme, CPS, for 15 years, against policy prescriptions of upward review every five years as stipulated by law.
While the law stipulates that pensions shall be reviewed every five years or together with any federal civil service salary reviews, whichever is earlier, the FG has failed to implement pension adjustments under the Contributory Pension Scheme, CPS, since the scheme’s inception in 2004.
The FG’s indebtedness to retirees on accrued pension rights in the last 16 months is estimated at N230 billion.
Some pensioner groups have called for a boycott of investing pension assets in FG securities since the government borrowing comes mainly from pension assets.
At the same time, the FG has always been found wanting in complying with the extant pension scheme.
