Pensioners Demand Full Payment As Delay Mars N32,000 Increase

Months after the Federal Government announced a N32,000 monthly pension increase, many retirees under the Defined Benefits Scheme are still waiting to receive their full payments.

The delay has sparked renewed complaints from pensioners who say the promise has not matched reality.

In September 2024, President Bola Tinubu’s government approved the increase as part of efforts to ease the burden caused by the removal of fuel subsidies. The raise was linked to the new N70,000 minimum wage and was supposed to take effect from July 29, 2024. PTAD, the agency in charge of pension payments, began implementation in December.

The new rate was meant to cover pensioners under several federal salary structures including those in civil service, universities, paramilitary bodies, and the intelligence community. Those not covered were directed to approach the National Salaries, Incomes, and Wages Commission for proper classification.

By July 2025, however, several pension unions—especially in Lagos and Ogun States—raised concerns that the promised increment had yet to reflect in their July payments. Groups like NIPOST, NTA, VON, FRCN, and NRC sent protest letters to PTAD, asking why the increase had not been applied.

Union officials explained that pensioners are growing impatient because the economic situation is getting harder. Many retirees rely solely on their monthly stipends to survive. They said the arrears and the monthly adjustments should be paid in full without further delay.

PTAD responded by meeting with aggrieved groups in Lagos and assured them the delay was not intentional. It said the reason for the lag was due to the timing of the announcement. Since the budget had already been passed before the pension increase was introduced, funding had to wait for a supplementary budget.

PTAD also said it has been paying arrears in batches using leftover funds. According to the agency, many pensioners have already received up to seven months of their owed arrears. Payments are made directly from the Central Bank of Nigeria to beneficiaries, and PTAD says it has no authority to withhold money.

In June 2025, PTAD paid out N8.6 billion to nearly 150,000 pensioners across different departments. The Civil Service got N2.3 billion, Parastatals received N5.7 billion, the Police got N310 million, while Customs, Immigration, and Prisons pensioners received N276 million.

Despite these efforts, the anger among some groups remains. Pensioners say the payments are too slow and many still haven’t seen a consistent reflection of the new amount in their regular monthly payments. They believe that if funds were available for part-payments, the full adjustment should have been completed by now.

Some union leaders urged patience, saying they are satisfied with the explanations provided by PTAD. But others argue that more pressure is needed, not on PTAD itself, but on funding agencies like the Ministry of Finance and the Accountant General’s Office. They believe the real bottleneck lies in the release of funds, not PTAD’s willingness to pay.

While the protests have cooled, the concerns remain. Many pensioners say they won’t stop speaking up until the full N32,000 increase reflects in every paycheck and all arrears are cleared. For them, this is more than a government policy—it is a lifeline in tough times.