If they are following the law, interpreted as most people believe it should be, a committee of both Houses of Parliament should soon start reviewing the act under which public servants are required to contribute five per cent to their pension. That contribution was to be phased in over two years, up to 2019. The legislation also lifted the retirement age for government employees from 60 to 65, in a phased adjustment.

However, another fundamental undertaking required by the law – the establishment of a segregated pension fund – has been implicitly pushed back because of the necessary extension of the time Jamaica has given itself to lower its debt to 60 per cent of gross domestic product (GDP). The new deadline is now 2028, two years later than originally planned. Yet, it might have to be stretched out further to provide the administration the fiscal space within which to respond to the COVID-19-induced economic recession.

This arrangement, the contribution of employees to their pensions, and the Government’s payment of pensions out of the Consolidated Fund, paradoxically, both masks and highlights the danger of a huge implicit pension debt that, if not attended to, might overwhelm future generations of Jamaicans. At the same time, as this newspaper has highlighted in these columns recently, the country faces a broader crisis of pensions, which is being exacerbated by the greying of the population.

https://jamaica-gleaner.com/article/commentary/20210322/editorial-review-public-sector-pension