Lyndonna Hillaire-Marshall, Grenada’s Permanent Secretary in the Department of Public Administration in the Prime Minister’s Office on Wednesday, December 18, spoke in detail about the new Public Sector Multi-Employer Pension Plan. She said while there is already a pension in place for public service employees, it gives partial coverage.
The official added that there are two categories of public service employees – the established ones who are eligible under the prevailing plan and the non-established ones who are not. Hillaire-Marshall said the goal is to ensure that everybody has access to a pension at the end of his/her public service.
“The pension reform is to correct the anomaly that exists in the public service with regards to who can receive the pension at the end of their tenure,” she told Shere Ann-Noel of Government Information Service, Grenada, in an interview.
The permanent secretary also said in response to a question that the pension plan will complement the NIS (National Insurance Scheme) instead of replacing it.
“We often hear people speaking about the fact what they receive from the NIS is not sufficient in terms of helping them maintain this kind of living. The plan is really intended to buffer what we get from NIS that would allow us to continue living a normal standard of living as much as possible,” she said.
Eligibility of plan
Explaining the eligibility of the plan, Hillaire-Marshall said is open to all public service employees, adding that it would be mandatory for public service employees who are not currently eligible for any pension. People like trainees, those on short-term contracts or those who are have been roped in based on their expertise but are beyond their retirement age would be exempted.
She said the new plan doesn’t apply to those who are currently under the existing plan but can join the new plan if it brings more benefit to them. She said people can make their choice but only within a timeframe which is a year.
“You can’t go back and forth because there are cost implications we have to work through,” she said, adding that people would do not act within that time would find themselves to be unfortunate.
When asked about the short-term contract workers’ eligibility, the secretary said anybody who has more than three months in service is eligible to be part of the plan. There is no age limit but the potential applicant has to be within government retirement age.
Hillaire-Marshall said people, who are entitled to have an ex gratia payment and meet the qualifying criteria as of the date the new plan will come into effect, will remain under the ex gratia payment.
The public administration official said while her department led the pension plan initiative, there was a pension reform committee comprising experts from various backgrounds like finance, law and science. The committee had numerous consultations with different stakeholders from which the pension plan took the final shape.
Speaking about concerns that came up during the plan’s preparation phase, Hillaire-Marshall said it was mainly from the employees’ side which had to do with their years of service. She said the cost implication was another concern since the government had to bear the responsibility of a new plan besides the current plan.
