Government lawyers cannot find time to be kind to “Old Dogs”
FNPF Lawyer ?
02 Friday Sep 2011
Posted in Daily Humour
Retiring late: Jacqueline’s story
02 Friday Sep 2011
Posted in Articles & Reports
Jacqueline joined her company’s defined contribution plan when she was 30. By age 65, her pension savings had grown to about $500,000. If she put that money in a retirement income fund the year she turned 65, and her money there grew 6% a year, her pension would equal about $3,300 a month, before taxes. That would be a yearly income of $39,600 until her 90th birthday.
But Jacqueline doesn’t want to retire until age 69. What will happen to her pension if she waits four extra years to retire? Under the plan rules, the company doesn’t have to pay anything more into her pension after age 65. But her savings have an extra four years to grow before she starts to spend them.
The result: If her savings grow 6% a year between ages 65 and 69, Jacqueline’s pension account will grow to $631,238 (or $4,224 per month), before taxes. That’s more than a 20% increase in just four years – almost $1,000 more every month.
Jacqueline’s Monthly Pension Payment
Grey Power Commentary
Grey Power believes no one should retire unless they want to. It may be more lucrative not to.
Just because we can take our pensions at 55 does not mean you have to retire at 55. You can negotiate a contract with your employer which states another retirement age. The public service retirement age in Fiji is discriminatory according to international human rights law principles because it does not fulfill a justified public purpose.
How many FNPF lawyers does it take to change a light bulb?
01 Thursday Sep 2011
Posted in Daily Humour
Answer: Fifty-four. Eight to argue, one to get a continuance, one to object, one to demur, two to research precedents, one to dictate a letter, one to stipulate, five to turn in their time cards, one to depose, one to write interrogatories, two to settle, one to order a secretary to change the bulb, and twenty-eight to bill for professional services.
Prosperity for All
01 Thursday Sep 2011
Posted in Articles & Reports
For those of you who have a little time to spare, the following link to the Strategic Development Plan 2007-2011 may prove interesting, particularly Chapter 1.2.2, Prosperity for all, given the Governments apparent support for the extreme measures against current pensioners.
Greybeard.
The Essential National Industries (Employment) Decree:
01 Thursday Sep 2011
Posted in Press Releases
The Essential National Industries (Employment) Decree: AG’s Media Statement on 10th September is a Mis-use of Human Rights Principles and Law
Press Release from Dr Shaista Shameem
Former UN Special Rapporteur and Human Rights Expert; former Director and Chairperson of the Fiji Human Rights Commission.
The enactment of the Essential National Industries (Employment) Decree No 35 of 2011 on 29th July is fundamentally inconsistent with the foundations of the Employment Relations Promulgation 2007 (ERP), and jettisons the comprehensive public consultations and consensus-building that the Employment Relations Bill involved. By so doing Decree No 35 also has the effect of expressing the State of Fiji’s disregard of the International Labour Organization’s Conventions 87 and 98 which it has ratified.
Continue reading
Can’t Remember ?
31 Wednesday Aug 2011
Posted in Daily Humour
An elderly couple had dinner at another couple’s house, and after eating, the wives left the table and went into the kitchen. The two gentlemen were talking, and one said, “Last night we went out to a new restaurant and it was really great. I would recommend it very highly.”
The other man said, “What is the name of the restaurant?”
The first man thought and thought and finally said, “What is the name of that flower you give to someone you love? You know… The one that’s red and has thorns.”
“Do you mean a rose?”
“Yes, that’s the one,” replied the man. He then turned towards the kitchen and yelled, “Rose, what’s the name of that restaurant we went to last night?”
Greying population gives us a golden opportunity
31 Wednesday Aug 2011
Posted in Articles & Reports
EVERY day the world’s population becomes greyer and does so more rapidly than the previous day. About four decades from now, seniors on every continent will exceed the number of young, an event that has no parallel in the history of humanity and has the potential to cause an economic revolution unless all nations take steps immediately to take advantage of the changes.
From Mohan Lal, FNPF beneficiary
30 Tuesday Aug 2011
Posted in Letters
It is a moral obligation for the Society to take care of the aged and infirm. IN Australia & NZ the tax payer pays the dole. A clear subsidy.
FNPF was set up to ensure care of the people in their twilight years.
2. FNPF says that it set the 55 as the age of retirement as the life expectancy in 1965 was 60.
Ok, then they should have adjusted the retirement age as done elsewhere. They did not do it and can still do so.
See the table below:
FIJI LIFE EXPECTANCY HISTORY
|
World Rank |
||||||
| Male | Female | All |
M |
F |
All |
|
| 1960 | 54.0 | 58.2 | 56.0 |
75 |
74 |
74 |
| 1970 | 58.0 | 62.2 | 60.0 |
81 |
81 |
82 |
| 1980 | 62.0 | 66.2 | 64.0 |
79 |
84 |
84 |
| 1990 | 64.6 | 68.8 | 66.7 |
89 |
99 |
97 |
| 2000 | 65.4 | 69.7 | 67.5 |
103 |
111 |
108 |
| 2009 | 68.2 | 73.4 | 70.7 |
105 |
106 |
107 |
The failure to take action in time was not members’ fault. The present retirement age should be in order of 60-65.
3. Fixed Pension & Inflation:
Since 1999, when the 25% was cut off to finally 15%, the inflation has accumulated to 70%.
See table below:
Inflation Rates Accumulated.
Year Rate Accumulation
1998 5.7 105.7
1999 2.0 107.814
2000 1.1 108.999
2001 4.3 113.68
2002 0.8 114.596
2003 4.2 119.409
2004 2.8 122.75
2005 2.4 125.699
2006 2.5 128.84
2007 4.8 135.0259
2008 7.7 145.422
2009 3.7 150.8
2010 5.5 159.097
2011 7.0 (EST) 170.23
170-100 (start) = 70%.
As a result our buying power has actually already reduced to 30%. In some countries dole is subject to adjustment by inflation rate.
4. FNPF needs to re-look itself. What is the ratio between staff to Membership? Compare this with say Singapore on whose model Fiji system works. It needs to improve return on investment and reduce its overhead.
5. Finally, they need also to raise the contributions made by members. This will ensure that the members when they retire at lower rate in future, they can sustain themselves. In addition, they should also ensure that members do not take away their retirement benefits now.
Grey Power commentary
Thanks Mohan for this contribution. One of the things pensioners never did with respect to the FNPF benefits is calculate just how much we lost in inflation over the years since we took our pensions. Other countries such as the USA have a COLA adjustment granted annually to our pensions. If the FNPF wants to review the Act we should make submissions that our pensions from henceforth be COLA adjusted.
Grey Power.
Attitude is Everything
30 Tuesday Aug 2011
Posted in Grey Power Editor
Attitude is everything.
Be kinder than necessary,
For everyone you meet is fighting some kind of battle.
Live simply,
Love generously,
Care deeply,
Speak kindly,
And pray continually.
Life isn’t about waiting for the storm to pass…
It’s about learning to dance in the rain.
It’s not what you gather, but what you scatter that tells what kind of life you have lived.
Life is too short to wake up with regrets.
Emergency Run
30 Tuesday Aug 2011
Posted in Daily Humour
Mick Flaherty had supped more Guinness than enough and had stumbled out of Quinn’s bar and into the Sunday afternoon air.
As his drunken eyes squinted to adjust to the light, an ambulance went by at great speed. Blue lights flashing and siren blaring, it roared up the street with Mick in full flight running after it.
A hundred yards, 200, 300, almost a quarter of a mile he tracked it until suddenly, lungs and legs giving out, he fell into the gutter.
Then with his very last ounce of breath he roared: ‘You can keep your damned ice cream!’
Fiji Pensioners 