By Taiye Olayemi
The Pension Transitional Arrangement Directorate (PTAD) says the Defined Benefit Scheme pension harmonisation will promote equity, improve retirees’ welfare and restore confidence in the administration of legacy pensions.
PTAD Executive Secretary, Mrs Tolulope Odunaiya, said this in a statement issued on Sunday in Lagos.
She said the harmonisation exercise, a landmark reform, aims at ensuring fairness in pension payments across the Defined Benefit Scheme.
According to Odunaiya, the initiative, approved under President Bola Tinubu’s Renewed Hope Agenda, is one of the most significant policy interventions in the DBS since PTAD was established in 2013.
PTAD manages pensions under the old Federal Government pension arrangement.
She explained that, unlike periodic pension increases, which raise existing benefits by a fixed percentage, pension harmonisation involves a comprehensive recomputation of pensions using the latest approved salary structures that were in effect before the closure of the Defined Benefit Scheme.
“The objective is to ensure that retirees who held similar positions and served for comparable years receive equitable pension benefits irrespective of when they retired,” she said.
Odunaiya said the exercise was introduced to address longstanding disparities in pension computation that had generated complaints from pensioners over the years.
“The harmonisation programme seeks to correct these historical imbalances by restoring parity within the pension system,” she added.
She said pension harmonisation entails the formal recomputation of pensions based on approved salary structures applicable before the DBS cut-off date, ensuring that benefits are determined by rank, grade level and years of service rather than retirement date.
According to her, the reform is expected to promote social justice by correcting historical inequities that have disadvantaged thousands of retirees.
Odunaiya said the exercise applies mainly to pure Federal Government pensioners and eligible retirees under the Parastatals Pension Department (PaPD), the Defunct and Transferred Agencies Pension Department (DTAPD), and the Treasury-Funded Federal Universities, Polytechnics and Colleges of Education Pension Department (TEHPD).
She added that eligible retirees who served under the Federal Government before their agencies were transferred to state governments are also covered by the harmonisation programme. (NAN) (www.nannews.ng)