An MP’s claim that Government owes retired seniors a back dated pensions increase was based on a faulty interpretation of the law, The Royal Gazette can report.Shadow Finance Minister David Burt was wrong to claim in the House of Assembly that seniors were owed a $1000 increase, because the Pensions (Increase) Order 2013, which was passed in March, only applies to retired government workers and MPs.On July 26, Mr Burt told his parliamentary colleagues that retired civil servants had received their pensions increases, but other pensioners were still owed about $1,000 in increases, which were also to have been awarded retroactively.“As we approach Cup Match and we hear the chuckles going on, there are seniors who are on fixed incomes and pensions deserving of money that is owed to them by the Government but they haven’t gotten their money,” he said.“These are not laughing matters. These are the things which we have to discuss.”Yesterday a Government spokesman clarified the March Order, confirming that it did not apply to all pensioners.“This Order does not apply to all pensioners,” said a Finance ministry spokesman. “It does not apply to pensioners under the Contributory Pension Fund.”The PLP MP yesterday admitted his mistake over his interpretation of the Order, and promised that it would not happen again.“What I can say is seven months into this job, I’m sure I won’t make that mistake again,” he said. “I can’t say that I won’t make any more mistakes, but I’ll be more careful and if I am wrong, I’ll be man enough to admit it as I have in this case.”However, despite his mistake, Mr Burt is insistent that all pensioners should receive a cost of living increase, and questioned why they had not yet been given one by the One Bermuda Alliance.Yesterday, Mr Burt said he had been approached by a pensioner who complained, wrongly, that he did not receive his increase as provided by the March Order, but now realised he had been mistaken in his effort to represent the pensioner’s concerns.“This matter raises a very important point,” Mr Burt told The Royal Gazette.“Although pensioners receiving Social Insurance are not owed any backdated funds as was claimed, they have not had a cost of living increase in their pensions since 2011. If social insurance payments would have been raised when former government employees and former Members of the Legislature effective 2012, some seniors would have been owed up to $946.48 in backdated funds.”He continued: “Even though the Pensions Increase Act requires that pensions are reviewed every two years, this mandatory review does not apply to social insurance. Therefore the question must be asked, when does the government intend to review and consider a cost of living increase to pensioners receiving social insurance?“Though the laws that govern social insurance do not require a biennial review — the Progressive Labour Party gave social insurance recipients an increase at a minimum of every two years. It has been two years since the last increase so seniors are rightfully asking, where is their cost of living increase?“Seniors receiving social insurance are not owed any backdated funds, but they are owed an explanation as to why the OBA government has decided to, for the first time in 13 years, not give a biennial increase to Bermuda’s Seniors, many of whom depend on their Social Insurance receipts.”