PTAD Set To Pay 103,710 Civil Service Pensioners N2.6 Billion Being Final Tranche Of 33% Pension Increment

By CLEMENT NWOJI, Abuja

The Pension Transitional Arrangement Directorate (PTAD) is set to pay the sum of N2,608,455,504.24 to 103,710 Civil Service pensioners.

This is even as the Directorate has commenced a pensioner satisfaction survey in an efforts toward improving on its service delivery to pensioners.

PTAD explained that the payment is the final tranche being made to Civil Service pensioners on the six months arrears of 33 percent pension increment.

It will be recalled that in July 2010, the Federal Government announced a 33% pension increase for pensioners.

The Federal Government began the payment of this increment from January 2014 leaving arrears of 42 months outstanding.

Out of the 42 months that was outstanding as at 2014, 24 months was paid in 2016, 6 months was paid in 2017, while 6 months was paid in November 2018.

The Directorate has now cleared the backlog of the 33% pension arrears of three main Departments of Civil Service Pension Department, Police Pension Department and Customs, Immigration and Prisons Pension Department.

The Directorate has also further assured that backlog of 33% arrears owed Parastatal Pensioners will be cleared in due course.

Meanwhile, the phone-call based survey aims to gauge the pulse of the pensioners, measure their satisfaction with PTAD services and provide the necessary feedback towards improving on our service commitment to pensioners.

The survey will involve over 48,000 randomly selected pensioners from the four pension departments under the Directorate’s management namely; The Civil Service Pension Department, The Police Pension Department, The Customs, Immigration and Prisons Pension Department and the Parastatals Pension Department.

The survey will run from March 2019 to May 2019 and phone calls to pensioners will be between the hours of 9am to 4pm.

Pensioners are encouraged to be factual in their response to our calling agents who will identify themselves by name.

Pensioners are however, not required to provide information regarding bank details, payments or work records of any kind.

Pensioners should also note that their participation is voluntary and no punitive measure will be applied for non-participation.

PTAD reminded its pensioners that the Directorate’s services are free and no staff of the Directorate will request for money to resolve a pensioner’s complaints or process a pensioner’s payment.

Further, it advised pensioners to beware of pension fraudsters and should not pay money to any person claiming to assist them in resolving their complaint.