Ex-gratia pension payments upped

The Cayman Islands government has increased payments made to Caymanian retirees who did not receive any pension upon leaving government posts.

The issue involves ex-gratia pension payments, made to reward the public service of Caymanians who worked in government for more than four years but did not become eligible for a pension or other equivalent allowances.

The pension regulations grant payments of $200 per month for those with between four and 10 years of government service, and $300 per month for more than 10 years of service.

Those payments were increased on 15 December from $200 to $300 per month and $300 to $450 per month, respectively.

The larger payments will cost government an additional $300,000 per year to provide.

“The status quo simply wasn’t any longer justifiable,” said Deputy Governor Donovan Ebanks.

“No Caymanian is going to be able to provide for themselves in retirement based on $200 per month or $300 per month.”

The problem that led to the need for granting ex-gratia pensions was dealt with more than a decade ago by enacting the requirement that all government workers receive a pension for their service, Mr. Ebanks said.

“Everyone who has been employed by the Cayman Islands government since the dawn of this new century accrues a pension entitlement and, thus, cannot accrue an ex-gratia pension entitlement, too,” he said. “But we have to do what is right by those Caymanians who toiled before we had that universal pension benefit.”