News
Clint Chan Tack
OUTGOING prime minister Stuart Young is not entitled to a pension which former prime minister’s are entitled to.
The same applies to UNC political leader Kamla Persad-Bissessar, a former prime minister who was elected prime minister again in the April 28 general election.
Preliminary results showed the UNC won 26 constituencies to 13 for the PNM and two for the Tobago People’s Party (TPP).
The rules for payment of a pension to former prime ministers are laid out in the Prime Minister’s Pension Act.
Section 3(1) of the Act states, “Every person who having been appointed Prime Minister on or after the 31st day of August, 1962, ceases at any time after such appointment to be Prime Minister shall be paid a pension under this Act with effect from the date on which he ceases to be Prime Minister and subject to subsection (2) the pension shall continue to be paid during the lifetime of that person.”
Section 3 (2) added, “The Prime Minister’s pension shall, if the person to whom it is payable becomes a legislator or is again appointed Prime Minister, cease to be payable during the period in respect of which that person is a legislator or holds the office of Prime Minister, as the case may be, but where the rate of the Prime Minister’s pension exceeds the rate of salary as a legislator, nothing in this subsection shall prevent the payment of the Prime Minister’s pension to the extent of such excess.”
Young was sworn in as prime minister on March 17, one day after Dr Keith Rowley resigned from this post.
On April 28, Young was re-elected as Port of Spain North/St Ann’s West MP.
This means he will sit in the House of Representatives again as a legislator but not as prime minister since the PNM lost the election.
Persad-Bissessar first served as prime minister from May 24, 2010- September 7, 2015, when the UNC-led People’s Partnership coalition lost that year’s election to the PNM.
She had been receiving a prime minister’s pension from September 2015 to April 28.
The UNC’s election victory and her re-election as Siparia MP means Persad-Bissessar will become a legislator and be appointed prime minister again. This means she will no longer qualify for a prime minister’s pension until she is no longer prime minister.
Persad-Bissessar will now be entitled to the salary and other conditions that a prime minister is entitled to.
Last November, then prime minister Rowley said government will accept the recommendations of the 120th Salaries Review Commission (SRC) report for those to whom it pertains.
This included a salary increase for the Office of the Prime Minister which saw Rowley’s salary rise from around $59,000 to $87,847.
The current salaries of the President, Prime Minister and Opposition Leader are $64,270, $59,680 and $29,590 respectively. The SRC recommended increasing them to $81,170, $87,847, and $52,159 respectively.
Once she is officially sworn in as prime minister, Persad-Bissessar will receive the $81,170 salary instead of the $52,159 salary she was receiving as opposition leader.
In a Facebook post after the election, Young said, “I thank you for your support. I will continue to fight for Trinidad and Tobago.”
Rowley, now a former prime minister, is entitled to receive a prime minister’s pension under the Act.
