Tanzania Retirees Appeal To The Government To Update Their Pensions So As to fight the impact of inflation
RETIREES Association of Tanzania (REAT),has appealed to the government to increase pension payments, which haven’t been adjusted for so long, that is outdated and puts them in dismay.
Talking to the press in Bukobain Kagera region,Northwest of the country Monday this week, REAT President, Dauda Bilikesi said his organisation was registered in March 2022 by the Ministry of Home Affairs, for the aim of defending and preserving for the retirees basic rights, dignity and wellbeing.
Bilikesi said, during this year’s Workers Day celebrations, President Samia Suluhu Hassan announced annual salary increments for public service employees, which had stopped for eight years consecutively.
“We appeal to the government and President Samia Suluhu Hassan to have mercy on us because the pension hasn’t been updated for so long that we earn so little,and considering the purchasing power has gone down as inflation erodes, it is desperate life to live”,said Bilikesi adding that it is his hope that the President eyes which saw civil servants outcries,will also see the retired persons’ claims to update minimum pension amount.
He denied the allegations that retirees extravagantly use the hefty lump sum of money they receive after retirement by saying that not all can be counted on that but advised of better use of money however big or small the amount it is.
Andrew Kabobo, a retiree said the post retirement sometimes is like a punishment as it pushes one into poverty due to overdue delays in the payment which can even go for more than two years.
“This causes some to turn to unlicensed money lenders who charge very high interest rates, that a borrower can pay back four times of the loan, and sometimes lenders play financial fraud to deprive the money from bank account”, said Kabobo.
However, it is said that payment delays have multiple causes including late contributions by employers to the pension schemes, but REAT is not ready to buy this excuse as it is an employer who sends the contributions, and an employee who is to retire, gives a notice six months before to make room for the office to arrange for benefits.
Liberatus Kamaleki, also a retiree, decried of National Health Insurance Fund (NHIF), for not covering all sort of diseases flattering the elderly, at the time when have no enough money to meet medical charges.
By Mutayoba Arbogast
