Pensioners urged to write wills

Pensioners in the country have been called upon to write wills before their death so as to avoid family wrangles.

The call was made on Saturday by Martin Orochi the Tororo Resident District Commissioner (RDC) while addressing pensioners at the Tororo Area Pensioners general assembly meeting held at Rock View Primary School Hall.

Orochi while hailing the Tororo district pensioners for forming an association, he called upon them to cooperate with the government to ensure that their grievances are addressed.

Most importantly, the RDC urged the pensioners to put pen to paper their wills before meeting their death so as to reduce on fighting among family members on who should be next in control of their pension funds and other retirement benefits.

Through this way, the RDC said that the abuse of rights of children, widows and other minority groups in society will be put to an end.

"I want to severely thank you for coming together because through that you will have more bargaining power" he said.

"However I want to emphasize that you write down your will as a pensioner, we have seen children, widows and other family members fight over what you have left so if you do that, then we shall have peace in our families" he added.

The district has been able to pay 56 pensioners in the last financial year while 72 pensioners have been initiated for payment in a period of the next 3 months.

However, Augustine Severino Oteba the Tororo district principal human resource officer cautioned the pensioners to be careful of conmen who claim to help them access their pension for they risk losing out on their benefits as former government workers.

He added on that there are individuals impersonating some genuine pensioners and as a district, they are currently investigating some of those cases of ghost pensioners in the district who have denied the rightful pensioners of their retirement benefits.

"Am aware that there are people who have conned a number of you claiming to be working with us but be careful" he said.

"We are investigating some cases of ghost pensioners and so you should also help us weed out those ghosts existing in the district" he added.

The Tororo Area Pensioners' Association (TAPA) was formed in April 2016 with thirteen executive members and 800 members to promote unity and development among pensioners of Tororo district and also enable them speak with a common voice.

The meeting was purposely to draft a constitution which will govern the pensioners but the members suggested that the constitution be discussed in the next sitting.