KINGSTON, Jamaica — Finance Minister Audley Shaw says that the government intends to introduce a Bill to make it mandatory for all pensionable officers to contribute five per cent of their salaries.

Shaw, who was speaking on the first day of the 2017/18 Budget Debate today, stated that the new legislation for public pension is aimed improving sustainability of the scheme and to strengthen its governance.

“The Pension Bill, which we hope to be debated in this honourable house next week Wednesday, seeks to establish a contributory pension scheme that will make it mandatory for all pensionable officers to contribute five per cent of their basic salary towards their pension,” Shaw said, indicating that not all public sector bodies have a working pension scheme.

“… most of the civil service as we know it are already paying 4%. There are other sectors, in particular the teachers, who do not pay anything at all, and the police who pay a nominal 1.25%,” Shaw noted.

Shaw said that for civil servants who are not used to having pension contributions being deducted from their salary the government is amenable to phasing in the deductions so that it is more tolerable.

He added that retirement age will be gradually increased to the 65 years and expressed that it is intolerable when people have retired and it takes months, in some cases years, to have access to their pension.

“It is unacceptable and we have to ensure that that situation is cleaned up,” Shaw stated, adding that more will be disclosed come next week.

Moya Hinds