The Federal Government is trying to put smiles on the faces of pensioners again and also to restore hope to them by issuing a directive that a verification exercise of the details of pensioners be done through the Pension Transitional Arrangement Directorate (PTAD).
This is to ensure that pensioners get their pension funds on time and as at when due.
The Director General of PTAD, Nellie Mayshak, during the verification exercise of pensioners in the health and education sectors held in Lagos said that the Federal Government was committed to putting smiles on their faces again even though pension funds were mismanaged and stolen in the past.
Nellie said “The pension funds were stolen and mismanaged and while some are in court now, others are on the run to escape prosecution. But we can now give assurance both to public and pensioners that their funds are safe,”
She also stated that there were no more third parties involved as pension funds are now directly domiciled with the CBN and payments are made directly to individual pensioner’s account.
She also said “When pension are not safe, people don’t want to retire. We then have people change their age to remain in the system because pension is a bad experience. We thank God that all of that has changed and we are doing very well,”
“It is a bit unfortunate when pensioners die, sometimes they are lucky to have enjoyed the statutory five years. But a pensioner can die in a year or even a month in their pensionable life and the next of kin needs the money to survive at the period and for that money not to come at the critical time has thrown many families into difficulties. We have been working with our partners to address the situation of late benefits to Next of Kins,”
Nellie also said the current exercise would address the issue of Next of Kin, as some next of kin are usually unable to recover the money after the pensioner dies.
