by TRACY MOORE

THE LONG-AWAITED Barbados Defence Force (BDF) pension plan should finally be in place in another four to six weeks.

This was the word from Minister of State in the Prime Minister's Office, Reverend Joseph Atherley, who said yesterday that since the matter was approved by Cabinet a couple weeks ago, he did not expect the matter to be drawn out much longer.

Speaking to the Press after a Presentation of Insignia of the Services Medal of Honour at St Ann's Fort, Garrison, St Michael, where over 50 members of the BDF were honoured after 15 years of exemplary and unbroken service, the minister said: "We are now actually where we will formalise regulations, all the details are spelt out in the plan.

"It has gone to the Attorney-General's Office for the regulations to be properly formulated, then it will come back for approval for laying at the House of Assembly. We expect it to come back to Cabinet fairly quickly," he said.

The pension plan, which would be effected in an amendment to the Defence Act, has been in the works for more than six years.

Soldiers with 15 years of "full continuous reputable service" and reached the age of 45, would qualify.

Atherley said the plan would include soldiers who either quit or retired after serving in the regiment, as well as spouses of BDF members who died while in service.

"The scope is pretty wide. There is a three-year threshold that would allow one to acquire benefits if after three or four or five years, they wanted to quit the Barbados Defence Force or had to quit for some reason.

"There is also a return allowance to retired benefits which could be paid to members calculated on their number of years.

"In the case of [spouses of] those who die in service, there is a formula for calculating the time served, which will be five times the amount of the annual salary of the deceased," he said.

He also mentioned a provision for "portability of pension" for those members who wanted to transfer their years worked in the BDF to the central public service.

And while soldiers will be asked to contribute to the plan, the minister said Government would certainly make a "substantial contribution" towards the retirement benefits.

tracymoore @nationnews.com