“Grey Power was searching for similar cases to Fiji and our FNPF predicament and came across this item about Nigerian pensioners in 2006. Grey Power thinks that clearly others have been where fijipensioners are now. We thought our readers and supporters would be interested in this story from Nigeria”.
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A guy who lives at Lake Saint Marys

if you hadn’t seen the following pictures:
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Fiji Pensioner:
Why are you insisting on reducing our pensions by 64% ?

 FNPF: Muppet Management
We cannot pay you your full pensions anymore because we have wasted your funds on bad investments made by Muppet Management (water under the bridge), yes the Fiji government has loans of 2 billion dollars, but don’t ask when they can repay it or the interest, its none of your business. Anyway you have lived too long and taken more than we think you should. Plus you are a burden on society now and should be put out to pasture.

Fiji Pensioner:
But it is our money, which is money that has been paid into the Fund by members from pay deductions and their employers. We pensioners all signed individual contracts for an agreed sum for the remainder of our lives. Some of us receive more than others, but these people had higher incomes, paid much higher taxes during their careers helping to maintain government services and other services to the communities- for example your scholarship to study; helping build roads and services and so on. These documents we signed at the point of retirement must mean something!

FNPF: Muppet Management
Your contracts mean NOTHING, the Government appointed the Board members and supports us Muppets, and it can make  laws or do reviews to change the law as we propose to do. None of us care about what you did for our country or how much you paid in the past, you have lived far too long. Why don’t you read the expensive advertisements we keep putting in the daily newspapers on our version of why we cannot afford to pay your pensions.

Fiji Pensioner:
We have read your advertisements and concluded they are a waste of OUR money, they do not propose any rectification measures to your incompetent management, and they only give reasons to support cutting pension payments.
Why are we never consulted, why have we never seen the results of an audit, or the reports into the operations of the FNPF?. Why do we the members not have a say in the appointment of people who control OUR investment? We should have some rights.

FNPF: Muppet Management
We don’t need to ask your opinion, or answer your questions, we have the support of the Government; the Government loves us, because we keep giving them your money. Why don’t you stop asking difficult questions? Just bugger off and die, we have might on our side, and who gives a damn about rights? What rights? Old people don’t have rights- get real!

Is this really the end of a very sad story? It is up to you. 

Grey Power

I’m calling a pensioners’ strike.
And maybe then, after the great grey strike of 2011, we can start a genuinely collaborative conversation about how the generations need to support and depend upon one another, in a humane and caring future. 

“Hang on, but pensioners don’t work, do they?” And that’s the nub of the problem. Because that pervasive attitude, that retirees don’t “work” or “add value”, and are a “burden” on the productive population – that idea needs squashing, flat. In an act of solidarity with their juniors – and a demand for a bit of bleedin’ respect – Britain’s retirees should all, just for one day, do what everyone assumes they do – sit around watching Cash in the Attic, maybe play a spot of golf, have a nap … and do absolutely nothing else. And the country would grind to a standstill.

Let’s have the strike in the school holidays, shall we? Because seniors are the largest childcare sector in the UK – providing more hours of care than nurseries, nannies or playgroups, allowing hundreds of thousands of parents to go to work. The value of retirees’ grand-childcare is estimated at £2.6bn a year. On pensioners’ strike day, the economy would stall so heavily, George Osborne could use it as an excuse for his next growth figures. Then you have the 1.5 million people over the age of 60 in the UK who currently “work” as carers for ailing spouses, siblings and children. And these days, a significant proportion of retirees are actually still managing, sourcing or providing the care for their own parents.
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The American College of Physicians’ ‘Complete Home Medical Guide’ contains a chart which categorises stress levels. This chart and the accompanying 2 page article are relevant to Fiji’s beleaguered pensioners. 

LOW:

• Change in work conditions
• Change in schools
• Small mortgage or loan
• Change in eating habits
• Christmas or other holidays

MEDIUM:

• Big mortgage
• Legal action over debt
• Trouble with in-laws
• Spouse begins or stops work
• Trouble with boss

HIGH:

• Retirement
• Serious illness of family member
• Pregnancy
• Change of job
• Death of close friend

VERY HIGH:

• Death of a spouse
• Divorce or marital separation
• Personal illness or injury
• Loss of job
• Moving house
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Article from The Daily Telegraph. London

Two thirds of adults aged under 35 expect to receive an inheritance but half of those aged over 50 are already spending the money, according to a survey of 2,000 people by Skipton Financial Services.

More than a third of the older group said leaving an inheritance would put a strain on their finances and more than a fifth said they did not expect to leave anything to anyone else when they die. That could lead to awkward scenes at the graveside – if not before – and leave many adult children bitterly disappointed.
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Here is a classic example of an organisation capable of thinking “Outside the Box” or is it “Inside the Barrel”? One thing is certain, unlike the current FNPF management and Board, this organisation is keeping its contractual commitment to its pensioners. 

(Reuters) – Drinks group Diageo (DGE.L) has agreed a plan with its pension fund which will use up to 2.5 million barrels of maturing Scotch whisky to help tackle a deficit of 862 million pounds.

The defined benefit plan was agreed after a triennial valuation of the Diageo Pension Scheme last April highlighted the deficit and triggered a requirement to agree a 10-year funding solution.
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