Support Cards for Trade: A Bureaucratic Hurdle for Pensioners
Introduction
Retirees from the Iranian military pension fund are facing significant administrative delays and logistical challenges in obtaining new support cards from Bank Tejarat. The issue, stemming from a recent re-routing of pension payments, has left many pensioners making repeated, unsuccessful trips to bank branches during the summer heat.
The Core of the Issue
According to numerous reports, military pensioners have been attempting to collect their new support cards for weeks. Upon visiting designated Bank Tejarat branches, officials have repeatedly turned them away, postponing the process and instructing them to return at a later date. This has created a cycle of inconvenience for the retirees.
The bank has cited a time-intensive card issuance process as the reason for the delay. Officials have stated that pensioners must first receive an official notification SMS before they can successfully collect their card—a procedure that could take up to two weeks to complete.
Background and Rationale
The initiative to provide these support cards was launched to ensure the uninterrupted payment of pensions. This measure was implemented following technical disruptions that affected some account holders at Bank Sepah. To proactively safeguard pension disbursements, the Armed Forces Pension Fund announced that one million pensions for the month of Tir had been deposited into these newly created support accounts at Bank Tejarat.
Consequently, retirees are now required to complete a personalization process for these new accounts and obtain their corresponding bank cards to access their funds.
Conclusion
While the establishment of a support system demonstrates a commitment to financial stability for pensioners, the current delays in card issuance highlight a gap in execution. The situation underscores the challenges of implementing large-scale administrative changes and the importance of efficient public service delivery to minimize public inconvenience.
