The Ogun State Chairman of Nigeria Union of Pensioners, Waidi Oloyede, has pleaded with Governor Dapo Abiodun to help float what he termed as health relief under the National Health Insurance scheme such that the retirees who subscribe to the scheme would enjoy a 50 per cent discount.
Oloyede said that this kind of request from the pensioners would help ease the burden of many retirees who are battling one ailment or another due to old age and other factors.
The NUP Chairman also appealed to the governor about the need to address the consequent adjustments of pensions in the state.
He said that while the mainstream workforce has not only enjoyed a wage increase since 2020 with an additional 40 per cent peculiar allowance from last year August, the pensioners have continued to receive the same amount despite the economic hardship occasioned by the subsidy removal.
Oloyede disclosed this on Saturday during the annual celebration of the Pensioners’ Day held at the state secretariat of the pensioners at Leme, Abeokuta.
He said, “The long-awaited but seemingly elusive consequential increase in pensions has greatly agitated the minds of the senior citizens whose monthly “take home” cannot take them to bank talk less of taking them back home.”
(Punch)
