Dear Editor: $3,000 vs $87,847—pension gap between citizens and parliamentarians is outrageous

I write on behalf of the thousands of working men and women of Trinidad and Tobago who spent their entire productive lives contributing to the National Insurance Scheme, only to retire on a minimum pension of TT$3,000 per month.

Three thousand dollars. That is what a lifetime of work is worth in this country.

Now let us look at what a lifetime in politics is worth.

A member of Parliament who serves a single five-year term walks away with a monthly pension of approximately TT$20,515. A long-serving MP or minister—someone who may have served 18 years or more—retires on TT$60,050 per month, a figure that increases automatically every time the Salaries Review Commission grants a raise to sitting parliamentarians.

They do not even have to be present in the legislature for their pension to grow. It grows while they sleep.

And at the very top of this pyramid sits the former prime minister, entitled under the Prime Minister’s Pension Act to a monthly pension equal to the full salary of the sitting prime minister—currently in the region of TT$88,000 per month. That pension, too, rises automatically with every SRC review.

It is, in effect, a lifetime guarantee of wealth, funded entirely by the taxpayer.

Let us be precise about what these numbers mean. A retired prime minister collects approximately 29 times the pension of the ordinary NIS contributor. A one-term MP—someone who served just five years—collects nearly seven times what the factory worker, the nurse’s aide, the market vendor receives after a lifetime of mandatory contributions.

And lest we forget: an MP who runs for re-election and is rejected by the very electorate they served is entitled to a gratuity of six months’ emoluments “to adjust to their new life”.

The ordinary worker receives no such cushion. They receive $3,000 and are expected to survive on it.

It is worth noting that Parliament did recently act on the Prime Minister’s Pension Act—but only to prevent a former PM, who served a mere 45 days, from qualifying.

When the shoe pinched a colleague, reform came swiftly. It has never come with such urgency for the pensioner collecting $3,000 a month.

This is not a partisan observation. Governments of every stripe—PNM and UNC alike—have presided over and benefited from this arrangement.

The laws governing parliamentary pensions were not written by accident. They were written by parliamentarians, for parliamentarians, with little regard for the citizens who fund them.

We are a nation that speaks loudly about equality, hard work, and dignity. But our pension system tells a very different story—one in which those who make the laws exempt themselves from the indignities those laws visit upon everyone else.

The Finance Minister has rightly warned that the NIS fund faces collapse within a decade and has announced painful reforms: higher contribution rates, a rising retirement age. Working people are being asked to contribute more and wait longer.

That may well be necessary. But it is unconscionable to demand sacrifice from the many while the few continue to draw pensions that would be considered extraordinary in any developed country in the world.

I call on the Government to urgently review the Parliamentary Pension Act and the Prime Minister’s Pension Act; to cap all political pensions at a reasonable and transparent multiple of the NIS minimum; and to index NIS pensions to inflation so that our retirees can live with dignity—not merely exist.

The measure of a society is how it treats its most vulnerable. Right now, we are failing that test—and every pensioner collecting $3,000 a month feels that failure every single day.

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Dennise Demming

Dennise Demming grew up in East Dry River, Port of Spain and has more than 30 years experience as a communication strategist, political commentator and event planner. She has 15 years experience lecturing business communications at UWI and is the co-licensee for TEDxPortofSpain. Dennise is a member of the HOPE political party.