PTAD Commences verification of 5000 Pensioners of Delta Steel Company, Fed Housing Authority

Loveth Azodo

Pension Transitional Arrangement Directorate(PTAD) has  commenced the verification of five thousand Pensioners of Delta steel company and Federal Housing Authority under its Defined Benefit Scheme.
the exercise was conducted  in three centers across the country.
Pensioners from the above  parastatals of federal government have almost lost hope of  getting their pension benefits but PTA  recently rolled its sleeves to shed light on their cases after years of wailing and yearning for help.
PTAD, which said it will conduct the exercise in three centers namely  Ekete near warri, Lagos and Abuja, said through the exercise, it will determine among them those that are acreditable and calculate and commence payment of their pension benefits.
PTAD Assistant Director Pension Administration,  Jubril  Idris, at the Lagos Verification centre,  told the media  that about three hundred and fifty pensioners of the aforementioned organisations have  been verified  and that they will receive their pay in the next three to four months.

“payment begins few months after the verification exercise, verification is a continuous exercise, those that were not involve at this period can still undergo their verification, we also consider those with health challenges that could not  make it to the verification center, we send our officials to them for the verification, one of the challenges we face is the pressure mounted on us by the pensioners, funding is not really our challenge as the government takes care of that very well, we are trying our best to make sure that these pensioners are happy, we also had issues of impersonation but we handed the individual to the security to do their job” he stated.
Some of the pensioner who spoke to Optimum times on their feelings on the exercise expressed satisfaction with the kind of  treatment given to them by PTAD during the exercise.

One of the pensioners, however said  he was happy with the speed at which the exercise was conducted.
“It was very fast but they should make sure this doesn’t end here, the government should see to the payment of the pensioners, there are no problems, This one is far better than the previous ones they did, the only thing they have to do is to make our money available on  time before we go to our graves”, the pensioner stated.