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Retirees and Retrenches Will be Paid, a Relief to Many
By The Times of Zambia (Ndola)
June 10, 2005
The announcement that retirees and retrenches will be paid before the end of the year is certainly a relief to this group of people, some of whom have waited for years for their hard earned cash.
The payment of retirees and retrenches will bring to an end the long years of misery that has now become part of life after leaving employment.
With the pronouncement coming from the Minister of Finance and National Planning Ng'andu Magande himself, we hope that there will be no red tape that will delay the process.
We also hope that the decision to pay off outstanding dues before the end of the year is the beginning of an end to the suffering that workers who have served the country diligently undergo after retirement.
For sometime now, retirement and retrenchment has become a nightmare and as such, not many people look forward to leaving their jobs.
At the moment, being retired is synonymous to being condemned to isolation and destitution as it takes years before terminal benefits are paid.
It is not an exaggeration to say that some pensioners have died without getting their money and in some cases even widowers and widows have also passed away before receiving these benefits.
Time has also come for Government and the Pensions Insurance Authority (PIA) to critically review the entire social security scheme in this country.
Some of the pensions schemes are outdated and do not match-up to the times that we are living in.
For instance, workers in Government and local authorities have pensions schemes that do not take into account the prevailing levels of inflation.
There have been complaints from those under the Local Authorities Superannuation Fund (LASF) that the monthly money is just a pittance.
Some pensioners living in rural areas receive as little as K40,000 per month but have to spend twice as much to get to the nearest point where they receive the money from.
Ways must also be found that will ensure that pensioners are able to buy houses under the social security scheme by the time they retire.
There must also be provisions that will take care of medical needs of pensioners.
These and many other issues need to be taken into account when Government and other stakeholders decide to review the social security scheme.
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