FG Pays 2,777 Pensioners N1.48bn Arrears

• FG Pays 2,777 Pensioners N1.48bn Arrears

About 2,777 federal retirees were paid N1.45bn in the first quarter of 2019, the latest statistics from the Pension Transitional Arrangement Directorate revealed.

PTAD stated in its report on pension arrears payment for the first quarter of 2019 that N1.19bn was paid to 2,242 retirees in the Civil Service Pension Department, N132.12m was paid to 452 Parastatal Pension Department retirees, while N123.316m was paid to 83 retirees in the Police Pension Department.

Recently, PTAD paid N2.6bn of the final tranche of the six months’ arrears of 33 per cent pension increment to civil service pensioners.

According to PTAD, the payment was for 103,710 civil service pensioners.

The pension directorate recalled that in July 2010, the Federal Government announced a 33 per cent pension increase for pensioners.

The Federal Government began the payment of the increment from January 2014 leaving arrears of 42 months as outstanding.

Out of the 42 months that were outstanding as of 2014, 24 months were paid in 2016; six months were paid in 2017, while six months were paid in November 2018.

PTAD stated, “The directorate has now cleared the backlog of the 33 per cent pension arrears of three main departments of the Civil Service Pension Department, Police Pension Department and Customs, Immigration and Prisons Pension Department.

“The directorate has also given the assurance that the backlog of 33 per cent arrears owed parastatal pensioners will be cleared in due course.”