Prior to 2022, most pensioners who were under the Defined Benefits Scheme(DBS), popularly known as ‘Old Pension Scheme’ were being overpaid monthly pensions based on the payroll inherited by the Pension Transitional Arrangement Directorate (PTAD).
Similarly, some pensioners, by the virtue of their level and grade they exit the public service, were being underpaid. This development created a lopsided ambiguity in payment as those who were victims of that system were grumbling and had taken their protest to PTAD.
To this end, in 2020, PTAD embarked on expanded computation project and revalidation of pensioner’s career documents for the Civil Service Pension Department.
After the exercise, in June 2022, the executive secretary(ES) of PTAD, Dr. Chioma Ejikeme, and the management team of the directorate held a meeting with the executive members of the Nigeria Union of Pensioners (NUP) and the Federal Civil Service Pensioners Branch (FCSPB), to inform the unions of the Directorate’s plan to properly place pensioners in the Civil Service Pension Department (CSPD) who were being overpaid on their accurate monthly pension.
At the end of the meeting, both parties agreed that the affected pensioners will be contacted and informed of the Directorate’s plan to properly place them on the right monthly pension from the month of July 2022, while the modalities to recover the over-payment will be worked out in due course.
Speaking in an exclusive interview with me on the issue yesterday, PTAD’s Spokesperson, Mr. Olugbenga Ajayi, stated that the directorate did the exercise to ensure fairness in the pension payment and not to witch-hunt anybody. As he noted that, every stakeholder was consulted during the exercise and got the approval of the pensioners’ unions before embarking on implementation of the adjustment.
“Before the adjustment, some were collecting monthly pension that is supposed to be for their superior, while some were underpaid by the virtue of the records we inherited.The adjustment was to put everybody where they belong and that was what we achieved with the exercise,” he pointed out.
A pensioner who preferred anonymity said, “The overpayment was removed from our salaries. My pension was halted from April 2018 to January 2019, that is ten months without pension. It was resumed in February 2019. To my surprise, fifty per cent was removed from my initial pension payment.
“The ten months unpaid pensions, as I speak to you has still not been paid. At that time no reason was given to us for the cut and no reason for the ten months unpaid arrears. We were not even told how much we had been overpaid. Anytime we went to the directorate to ask questions,they treated us with contempt, while sending us away stating verbally that they would pay us our arrears when money was available. And up until today not a kobo has been paid. We are still waiting endlessly for a clear answer from PTAD.”
