Mrs Brownlee, who served as a firefighter, said,
“I have been contacted by former firefighters who are growing increasingly frustrated at difficulties with the NIFRS pension system. The latest delay to payments of their pension increase has been blamed on a “technical issue”, but I have been told that previous increases have also suffered from significant delays of up to seven months.
I have tabled questions to the Health Minister in relation to this issue because it is important to know what exactly these “technical issues” are and when they will be resolved. Obviously any system can experience problems, but it is concerning that this appears to be happening repeatedly.
Firefighters have served the community in a physically demanding and often dangerous role. It is important that when they have retired that they are treated properly and part of that must be ensuring that increases to their pension are paid quickly. I hope the Minister can outline some details of what the issues are, whether they lie within NIFRS, the Department of Health or HMRC. Having already waited four months for the latest increase to be paid it is also important that there is a clear timeframe outlined for their resolution.”