Agony of retiring from public service

THE TIMELY payment of superannuation benefits to public officers when they retire, after rendering yeoman service to their country, maintains a top advocacy item on TTUTA’s agenda, like a recurring decimal.

This issue continues to remain a major deficiency of the public service, whereby their own employees are routinely subjected to the indignity of being forced to wait years for their retirement benefits, some even dying without receiving their property. Even worse is the absence of any remorse form anyone along the bureaucracy chain for the obscene delay.

With specific reference to the Ministry of Education, several initiatives would have been tried over the years at the behest of TTUTA for this untenable state of affairs to be corrected. Ministers and permanent secretaries have acknowledged this problem but have seemingly been unable to maintain a sustained arrangement whereby people can look forward to their superannuation benefits promptly, or at least within a reasonable period as suggested by Justice Rahim in his 2022 judgement.

People are prompted in writing to submit their relevant retirement documents at least one year prior to their intended date of exit from the public service; an instruction with which they dutifully comply, thus anticipating that the relevant background checks and computations will be completed to coincide with their retirement.

Despite the ruling of Justice Rahim, wherein he reminded that the failure of the State to pay pensions lawfully due breached one’s right to enjoyment of property and the right not to be deprived thereof, except by due process of law enshrined in section 4(a) of the Constitution, the delays persist.

The litany of excuses for the inordinate delay can range from, “The officer dealing with your file is not here today” to “Your file cannot be located” or “There is mould in the vault.” You may be given a telephone contact to follow up on the progress of your "file," but that is a dead end since no one answers the phone.

The indifference and lack of urgency in treating with the issue is pathetic and a gross insult. What is even more unfair is the inability to appeal your indignation to anyone else higher up the chain of command.

Every year almost 400 teachers retire from the teaching service. Despite this known fact, the Ministry of Education has been unable to manage this reality in a timely manner that would spare retirees the humiliation, disgrace and embarrassment of having to virtually beg for what is rightfully theirs. Adequate staffing has been repeatedly identified as a major impediment to correcting this problem, revealing a more systemic dimension to the issue.

Not to be outdone is the joke that prevails at the National Insurance Board (NIB) regarding the record of contributions. Despite the fact that NIS (National Insurance Scheme) contributions are being routinely deducted from one’s salary in compliance with the law, the reality of NIB’s record shows otherwise.

This forces people to request written confirmation from the ministry attesting to one’s record of service and NIS deductions; alas another level of obscene bureaucracy, beginning with making an online appointment to request and obtain one’s NIS payment record and submitting same to the ministry for update. This process can take several months for the necessary documentation to become available to return to the NIB via another online appointment to submit an application for NIS benefits.

Such is the convoluted agony to retiring from the public service; the appreciation for having rendered up to 40 years of dedicated public service. While retirees have to endure this distressing delay in obtaining their gratuity, pension and NIS payments, many are forced to utilise their savings to survive for periods in excess of a year. While living expenses, inclusive of medical bills mount, some people find themselves having to live on the generosity and benevolence of family members.

This is the rude introduction of many retired teachers to the title of "senior citizenship" courtesy of one’s own employer.

As previously stated, TTUTA would have repeatedly identified this issue as a grave injustice to the authorities with very limited success. In the past retirees have even had to resort to picket action outside the ministry to highlight their plight.

Once again TTUTA calls on the authorities, beginning with the political directorate, to urgently address this prejudice that awaits all teachers upon exit from the teaching service. It is nothing short of insulting that in this modern era of digitisation such archaic systems are still being employed to manage the public service.