Prior to 2022, the Pension Transitional Arrangement Directorate overpaid monthly payments to the majority of retirees who were covered by the Defined Benefits Scheme (DBS), sometimes known as the “Old Pension Scheme” (PTAD).
Similar to this, some pensioners were receiving less money than they should have due to their level and grade when they left the public sector. This development led to an unfair uncertainty in payment because people who had been harmed by the system were complaining and had complained to PTAD.
For the Civil Service Pension Department, PTAD began an enlarged computation project and the revalidation of pensioner career documents in 2020 to achieve this goal.
Following the exercise, in June 2022, the executive secretary (ES) of PTAD, Dr. Chioma Ejikeme, and the management team of the directorate met with the executive members of the Federal Civil Service Pensioners Branch (FCSPB) and the Nigeria Union of Pensioners (NUP) to inform them of the directorate’s plan to properly place pensioners in the Civil Service Pension Department (CSPD) who were being overpaid on their accurate monthly pension.
At the conclusion of the meeting, it was agreed by both parties that the affected pensioners would be contacted and informed of the Directorate’s intention to properly place them on the correct monthly pension beginning in July 2022, while the specifics of how to recoup the overpayment would be worked out later.
The PTAD spokesperson, Mr. Olugbenga Ajayi, said in an exclusive interview with me on the subject yesterday that the exercise was carried out by the directorate to ensure justice in pension payments, not to persecute anyone. As he pointed out, prior to starting the adjustment’s implementation, the pensioners’ unions gave their consent and every stakeholder was consulted throughout the process.
“Before the adjustment, some employees were receiving monthly pensions that were meant for their superiors, while others were paid less than they should have been according to the data we acquired.
The exercise succeeded in getting everyone where they belonged, which was the adjustment, he noted.
An elderly person who wished to remain anonymous claimed, “The overpayment was taken out of our salary. From April 2018 until January 2019, or 10 months, my pension was suspended. In February 2019, it was started again. To my amazement, 50% of my initial pension payment was taken away.
“As I speak to you, the ten months’ worth of back pay for pensions has still not been received. At the time, neither the cut nor the ten-month payment arrears had a justification provided to us. We were not even informed of the amount of the overpayment. Every time we visited the directorate to ask questions, we were treated rudely and sent away with verbal promises to be paid our arrears as soon as funds became available. And no money has been paid up until this point. We continue to wait impatiently for PTAD to provide a definitive response.
