by Sanka Price

NINE OF THE 11 Barbados Labour Party (BLP) candidates who lost their parliamentary seats in Tuesday's general election will not go home empty-handed. Each is entitled to a pension of between $5 731.92 and $7 642.57 per month.

But there's a catch.

Only those 50 years and over can start to receive this money.

Of the 11 who lost – Reverend Joe Atherley, Joe Edghill, Reginald Farley, Noel Lynch, Rommell Marshall, Clyde Mascoll, Trevor Prescod, Kerrie Symmonds, Liz Thompson, Jerome Walcott and Anthony Wood – only two, Symmonds and Walcott, have not qualified for a pension, having not served the two parliamentary terms as required by law.

Eligible

Of the nine that do qualify, eight are eligible for a pension based on their annual ministerial salary of $137 566.20.

The ninth, Edghill, will be eligible for a pension based on his annual parliamentary salary of $69 157.20 as Deputy Speaker.

All members of the House of Assembly, all ministers and parliamentary secretaries and the President of the Senate are eligible for pensions. They become eligible by contributing five per cent of their salaries to this scheme.

According to The Retiring Allowances (Legislative Service) Act, amended in August 1999, a full parliamentary term means the period that begins on the date on which the writs for general elections are returned to the Governor-General.

This term expires on Nomination Day, immediately following the next general election; or the Election Day of the next general election, where a member of either House is a candidate.

This two-term stipulation would apply to those who found favour with the electorate in both the 1999 and 2003 elections. These include Atherley, Prescod and Wood.

Each of these is eligible for a pension set at one-half of their highest salary, which would be their annual ministerial pay of $137 566.20. Their pension would therefore be about $5 731.92 per month.

However, as Wood is not yet 50 years old, he will have to wait three more years before he can collect a cheque.

The other way to qualify would be by serving a number of years totalling not fewer than ten. On qualification, pension is set at one-half the highest salary received by the individual.

This stipulation would apply to Mascoll who was first elected to the House in the by-election for the St Michael North West seat in 1996 to replace the late Lawson Weekes for the Democratic Labour Party.

He lost the subsequent election in 1999 to Mark Williams of the BLP, but was appointed to the Senate where he served until the 2003 poll when he turned the tables on Williams, only to lose to Chris Sinkcler in Tuesday's election.

But as Mascoll is not yet 50, like Wood, he too will have to wait another three years.

Three terms

For someone who has served for three full parliamentary terms, or an aggregate of 15 years, pension is set at two-thirds of the highest salary received.

This would apply to those who would have been elected from 1994. This includes Edghill, Marshall and Thompson, each of whom was elected in 1994 and won a seat in the two subsequent polls in 1999 and 2003.

Farley and Lynch fall into this category as well, as they served in the Senate between 1994 to 1999, before successfully winning seats in the 1999 and 2003 elections.

Therefore, Thompson, Farley and Lynch are eligible to receive a monthly pension of about $7 642.57. Marshall's pension will be slightly lower, as his ministerial salary will be calculated from when he stopped being a minister in 2003, while Edghill's should be around $3 842.07.

Both Farley and Thompson are in their mid-40s and inegible to collect their pension until they reach 50.

Also in for a pension under this rule is former parliamentary secretary in the Ministry of Finance, Tyrone Barker, who was appointed to the Senate from 1994.

Indeed, he will be entitled to a full ministerial pension of about $7 642.57, having acted as a minister for 90 consecutive days in the absence of Hamilton Lashley and then Gline Clarke.