Education sector personnel’s pensions delayed due to Department’s negligence: CTU
View(s):Pension applicants complain about being sent from pillar to post to provide the relevant details about salary deductions to the Education Department
Thousands of education sector personnel said their pensions have not been processed on time due to lapses in updating their salary deductions.
The Ceylon Teachers Union (CTU) claimed that around 6000 teachers and principals have complained that there is an inordinate delay in the processing of their pension applications. They said this is due to the Education Department’s failure to update the deductions made for the widows and orphan pension funds from their salaries.
The Education Times learned that applicants were being asked to provide details of the deductions made in the past years for the widows and orphan pension funds, to release their gratuity and pension funds.
CTU General Secretary Joseph Stalin said retired persons were sent from one zonal office to another to get the relevant details. Applicants complained that some zonal offices had not maintained any records of their salary particulars and they were being sent from pillar to post.
Applicants were also being asked to pay the deductions that they could not account for, before their funds were released. However, the claimants said the monthly deductions for widows and orphan pension funds had been taken from their salaries.
This was causing a considerable delay in processing their pensions, thereby causing financial hardship to their families, they said. The CTU said the retirees should not be penalised for lapses of the Department.
“They cannot pay twice. The Government must make arrangements to release the funds quickly,’ Mr Stalin said.
- CC