Issue link: https://maltatoday.uberflip.com/i/1457526
maltatoday | SUNDAY • 6 MARCH 2022 OPINION 3 LETTERS & EDITORIAL maltatoday | SUNDAY • 6 MARCH 2022 Mikiel Galea Letters & Clarifications Extending retirement to 70 AS the situation presently stands, skilled and unskilled employees and professionals in the government service or government agencies are forced to retire at 65 years of age. Even though such employees would be in good health, and mental faculties, and possess an invaluable extensive work experience and acquired knowl- edge, on attaining the age of 65 they would have their employment termi- nated. This has been applied also to profes- sionals such as cardiologists and judges, even though they expressed willingness to continue their services. However, in the later cases, some methods have been formulated to en- gage back such individuals, or those who happen to be close to the party in government, as consultants or special- ists whilst retaining their pensions. No such luck for other lowly workers, who despite their extensive work expe- rience, are given the boot on attaining the age of 65 years. On the other hand, in the United Kingdom: "The law no longer allows your employer to force you to retire at 65, or any other age, unless there is a contractual retirement age in place where you work, capable of objective justification based on conditions where you work". Up to 20 April 2021 – U.K. employers used to be able to force workers to re- tire at 65 (known as the Default Retire- ment Age), but this law was scrapped in April 2011. When considering that in Malta life expectancy has reached an average length of life of 82.6 (2019 statistics) and it has been reported that Malta now tops the EU table in this respect, and that unemployment is so low that there is a shortage of workers and professionals in several categories consequently making us reliant on imported human resource (skilled or otherwise), and when considering the cost savings that can be obtained by the state in delaying state pension payments albeit with some financial benefits to those who decide to defer their state pension, extending retire- ment to age 70 would be beneficial for one and all. Moreover, youngsters are being en- couraged to continue their education beyond secondary level to achieve grad- uation, and thus, this makes the need to extend retirement age even more justified. A step in the right direction has been taken by a local major political party who proposed that members of the corps of discipline such as the police force can continue working beyond retirement age whilst retaining their pension without the need for applying for their extension of services. This is however applicable to the police force due to special duties per- formed by the police in enforcing law and order. Extending such an opportunity to one and all would be considered uneconom- ically. However, what about the rest of senior citizens, shouldn't they be al- lowed to continue their services be- yond the age of 65 with some increase in their pension if this is deferred so long that they are capable and willing to do so for the benefit of the nation and the common good? Raymond Sammut Mellieha Right of Reply THE article published on MaltaToday on the 27th February 2022 titled 'No refunds on UCA property tax leaves buyers, notaries smarting', which alleges that no refunds on UCA property tax are being given is factually incorrect in its entirety. The budget measure which the article refers to is fully functional, is compliant in full with the budget speech, so much so that a number of applicants have applied for this scheme and the first refunds have already been issued. As with all other schemes and incen- tives and as per legislation published, two different schemes cannot be uti- lised in conjunction for the same con- tract. The Ministry wishes to point out that at no stage did it receive any request for comment or clarifications for this newspaper article, which is presumably why it went to print with such grossly erroneous information.