Saturday’s news that some progress is being made on the continued pension issue regarding so-called “border workers” is most welcome. If there’s one thing most people hate to see, it’s innocent persons becoming victims of a lacking system through no fault of their own.
To be sure, these are French-side residents employed on the Dutch side during the 1970s who duly paid their mandatory old age pension AOV premium. However, deductions were made based on applicable regulations when it came to collecting the related benefits.
Talks are underway with Social and Health Insurances SZV, which took over from the former Antillean Social Insurance Bank SVB when St. Maarten gained the status of autonomous country within the Kingdom of the Netherlands per 10-10-10. The short-term intention is to work on a partial payment, also taking into account that individual cases vary considerably.
It must be said, DP leader Sarah Wescot-Williams has been addressing this matter for years. The main problem is a rule that pensions of recipients who move abroad are reduced, but in this case they remained on the same island.
A law change will be needed to set right what all parties now recognise was essentially a wrong, but that will obviously take some doing. Hopefully those directly involved can get at least some of the money reasonably owed to them in the meantime, because they have been waiting more than long enough.
