Sir, – Colm McCarthy (Opinion, February 11th) stated that “public service pensioners have been spared the cutbacks”. This is simply not true.
I am an 80-year-old public service pensioner and am subject to both pension levies varying from 6 per cent to 12 per cent and to the Universal Service Charge of 2 per cent to 4 per cent. Unlike my private sector friends, I am not entitled to any social welfare pension. Not only that, but my 70-year-old spouse who had to quit her job in the public service due to the “marriage bar” has been informed that she is entitled to no pension whatsoever! She is left literally penniless in her old age. – Yours, etc,