Pensioners raise red flags over meagre pension
Having withheld an earlier planned demonstration over low pensions, members of the Ghana Pensioners Association (GPA) on Thursday raised red flags and called for a prompt increase.
They urged Government to move from sympathy to action over the meagre pensions they received, and appealed to the Social Security and National Insurance Trust (SSNIT) and political parties to act on their plight, else they would advise themselves and hit the streets.
“We want the necessary adjustments to be made to also support other pensioners every year,” Mr Edward Ameyibor, General Secretary of the Association, said at a press conference in Accra at the weekend.
“Ladies and gentlemen, it would surprise you to know that after 20 years of being on retirement, some of our members still earn pensions below GH¢100 a month. In fact, the lowest paid pensioner gets GH¢52 a month,” Mr Ameyibor said, adding: “We are saying no pensioner should earn anything lower that the minimum wage.”
The press conference came ahead of a planned meeting with the Ministry of Employment and Social Welfare, the SSNIT and political parties on Friday, to precede the United Nations International Day for Older Persons which falls on Saturday, October 1.
There are presently about 107,000 SSNIT pensioners, and being a contributory scheme, the GPA General Secretary said “what you put in is what you get over a period when SSNIT harvests dividends from various investments it has made from our contributions.”
The Pensioners registered their anger against the introduction of a meager GH¢10 increase last year, but said they were able to manage their anger by flowing into the streets where the senior citizens of all categories were threatening to take the matter to.
Thereafter, the National Executive had met with the leadership of SSNIT and the Government over the issue, but not much came out of the discussion.
“We had to live on the GH¢10 increment for the whole 2011,” Mr Ameyibor said, adding, “We took the case to the Ministry of Employment and Social Welfare in March 2011, asking for a pension incomes support, since it was obvious that SSNIT would not be of much help.”
The GPA said all it had received so far was a lot of sympathy, and wondered why SSNIT was sending older persons to their early graves by being “close fisted”, when it had so much money.
The Association welcomed higher pensions with the proposed across the board and percentage system, and cautioned that members would not be able to guarantee a favourable reaction should the new figures fail to meet their expectations.
“We want to take this opportunity to urge Government to move from sympathy to action over our plight.
“Salary levels in Ghana have always been low, so pensions are low, but the cost of living, medical bills and the markets are all beyond the resources available to pensioners.
“We want Government to take more seriously our appeal for a pensions income support by creating a special fund to support pensions below the minimum wage,” Mr Ameyibor said.
Source: GNA