Abdullah Al-Jamili Although pensioners have spent their working life serving their nation, the allowances they receive and the services they are given in retirement are meager. A pensioner's allowance is too little to meet the basic necessities of life. How can a man who gets SR1,850 or SR2,000 a month support his family, especially with the constant increase in the cost of living? These poor people are suffering. Every day, they expect good news about the establishment of a minimum pension that is sufficient to meet their expenses. But such a decision seems to have slipped into the world of impossibilities! Even if this impossibility is ever realized and a pension increase is granted, traders will cash in on it by further increasing prices. Therefore, the best way to support pensioners is by working out a permanent system of linking the increase in their pension to price rises and the rate of inflation. We have to follow the system used in many countries where pensions increase with the rate of inflation and prices of essential goods and services. There is a serious initiative in the United Arab Emirates to adopt such a humanitarian system. It is the obligation of the nation and society to support pensioners by giving them discounts and benefits, such as health insurance. They should be given at least a 60 percent discount on their utility bills, as well as on government fees for the issuance of passports, driving licenses and the recruitment of domestic workers. Moreover, clubs for pensioners should be established in cooperation with the private sector. Finally, it should be noted that there are many pensioners who have expertise and experience in many fields. There should be a mechanism to take advantage of this knowledge and to see to it that it is transferred to the younger generation by ensuring the involvement of pensioners in training courses, in addition to opening channels of interaction with them under the umbrella of the Pensioners' Society.
