Retired public sector workers in Bermuda will get a four percent pension increase under a new order tabled by Premier and Finance Minister Paula Cox.

The rise which will be backdated to this July and is thought to cover more than 1,900 people applies to former civil servants, police, prison and fire officers, Ministers and MPs and persons receiving ex gratia payments.

In the House of Assembly on Friday she tabled the Pensions (Increase) Order, and Pensions (Public Service Superannuation Act 1981) (Increase) Order, which state that the four percent increase comes into effect from July 1, 2010.

Those whose pensions began in 2009 get a three percent rise; those whose pensions began in the first half of this year get a one percent rise.

Ms Cox’s press secretary Beverle Lottimore told this newspaper the Pensions Increase Act 1972 states pensions must be increased if the cost of living rises by half a percent or more. She said the size of the increase is calculated by a statutory formula.

“The Orders will be debated in the House in the normal course of the Parliamentary agenda,” said Ms Lottimore.

Ms Cox warned four months ago there would be no rise on Government pensions for seniors across the board for the first time in nine years.

She said then: “For our seniors, the near 50 percent increase in pension benefits put through by this administration since its time in Government is above the underlying trend rate of inflation.

“Therefore seniors’ pensions will be in good shape for many years to come.”

But at last month’s Progressive Labour Party leadership contest she told delegates Government would assess both public and private pensions.

She said she would also consider closing the gap between the pensions received by Bermudians and non-Bermudians.