GIBRALTAR PENSIONERS ASSOCIATION

Widows/Divorced women
This 1st Release on the difficulties being faced by elderly widows/divorced women in Gibraltar is being published to bring to notice the negative effect it has on those affected. Our aim is that widows/divorced women should enjoy, free of financial worries, what remains of their lives.

Whilst we have to emphasise there have been marked improvements in how widows and pensioners are being treated by our Government it does not go far enough and major problems continue to be faced by widows, divorced and separated women.

WIDOWS
In the public sector when the holder of the occupational pension dies, in most instances the occupational pension ceases to be paid overnight and the widow finds herself in a very difficult financial situation.

It must be explained that some year back there existed what was known as the "Widows and Orphans Pension Scheme" that entitled widows to continue being paid a percentage of the occupational pension earned by her late husband. The scheme was introduced sometime in 1958 and applicable to all holders of a pensionable office. The main advantage of the scheme was that if the husband, after retirement, died and having worked for at least ten years in pensionable service the widow would get a pension of one-fourth of the full pension the late husband had been getting or one-third of the reduced pension. The Scheme was abolished some years back and it was stopped being compulsory. Only a small number of workers opted to continue in the Scheme and today their widows continue to benefit from the scheme.

The matter is worse in the private sector where very few pensioners and particularly their widows have no benefits on retirements. Our research shows that only a limited number of companies introduced private pension schemes -and for those who did we are very grateful. Widows of these workers find themselves with very little income except, and if entitled, with the state Old Age Pension and Household Cost Allowance.

The position today for those without an occupational pension, mainly widows, is well known. On the death of the holder of the occupational pension the widow, if entitled, then gets monthly an Old Age Pension of (£ 385.28) and the Household Cost Allowance (£187). i.e. £ 572.28 per month. Those that are not entitled to an Old Age Pension (for not having contributed to the Social Insurance Fund) can apply for the Elderly Person's Minimum Income Guarantee payment (means tested). The entitled maximum payment for a widow is £475 per month plus an additional payment of £26.10 if the widow is not in receipt of an old age pension. The payment is therefore £501.10 per month. This means therefore that a widow entitled to the Minimum Income Guarantee Payments gets £501.10 per month whilst those who have paid social insurance get £572.28. . The end result is that Government expects a widow to live on just over £500 monthly. (Minimum Income Guarantee payment or £572.28 (for those entitled to an Old Age Pension).

DIVORCED WOMEN
Prior to the 2007 Act, divorced women received no social security pension on their former spouses' record. In 2007 the Social Security (Open Long-Term Benefits Scheme (Amendment) Act was passed which remedied the unfairness of the situation as it provided for divorced women to receive the allowance allocated to them when married. In our view, the act does not go far enough as it only provides an entitlement for divorced women of half the pension received by the ex-husbands. Many of those affected are now elderly citizens and suffering great financial hardship as a result of the reduced pension.

This Association recently met with representatives of the Widows and the Divorced Women Pension Groups and we have agreed to make the matter public and to canvass Government and others reference this very real and urgent problem.

We find the present situation totally unacceptable and have been making representations to Government about this since this Association was formed over 5 years ago. Whilst the position is slightly better than it was some years ago, it is still not what one would expect from a progressive, healthy and robust economy.

We have proposed a number of schemes to improve the situation including asking Government to set up a compulsory new fund, to be financed by the private/ public sector and Government for present and future pensioners. Present pensioners having to pay, a small amount on joining the proposed scheme and then a small contribution towards the scheme on a monthly basis. Those from the private sector would also need to pay. Thereafter legislation should also be enacted so that all employees and employers in the private and public sector pay a monthly amount towards the fund. The fund would pay part of the occupational pension to future widows from both the public and private sector. This is briefly our idea that obviously would need to be worked out by accountants and qualified economists.

This Association propose to deal with this issue as a matter of urgency. Whilst there appears to be light at the end of the tunnel in that in the last Election Manifesto of the GSD this item has been included as one of their main commitments ,namely, "Occupational Pensions in private sector and Civil Service WOPS provisions" we hope this urgent matter will be settled before the next general election. In the meantime we ask all those Associations, Unions and individuals who have an interest in this matter to join us in lobbying Government in supporting our claims.

We are very interested to hear the views from widows and others and you may write or e-mail the Secretary of the Association or any member of the committee or attend our meetings on Tuesdays (11am/12 noon) at the John Mackintosh Hall.

<< Back