Mon, Nov 9 2009 - BUTTERWORTH: A group of pensioners are appealing to Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Tun Razak to implement the revised pension formula approved 14 years ago based on their length of service.

Their ad-hoc coordinator S. Arumugam, 66, said currently, pensioners who served 25 years and more, and who were entitled to the revision, received half of their last-drawn monthly salary across the board.

Under the revised formula, pension would be calculated at 1/600 multiplied by the length of service (in months), multiplied by the last drawn salary.

Arumugam said the Government had, on Jan 30, 1996, approved the revised pension formula, back-dated to Jan 1, 1995, allowing pension to be calculated on the actual number of years served.

However, he said the implementation was deferred due to the economic slowdown.

“Pensioners who draw several hundred ringgit per month are finding it hard to make ends meet, especially with the rising cost of living.

“Some of them are bedridden, while some are counting their last days.

“We hope the Prime Minister will look into our plight,” he told a press conference attended by 50 pensioners here yesterday.