More $$ for pensioners

THE EDITOR:If the Prime Minister and Minister of Finance, is really serious about eradicating poverty or its eradication, one sure way to start or to do so would be to give every government pensioner who were in Ranges 1 to 16 a better pension. Persons receiving pension in these ranges are low as they are below $2,000 per month, or I will even go further by stating that all pensioners, who are receiving less than $2,000 per month should at least be getting that sum per month.

How can a pensioner at this stage of his life, with a family to support meet the spiralling cost of living, medical bills due to old age and ill health, plus all the other unexpected debts that usually arise? After giving a lifetime of service to the nation, these pensioners do not have even the basic necessities to exist in dignity. In his Budget presentation on October 8, 2004, the finance minister allocated $62 million for ex-gratia payments for retired public servants and widows. When this figure is broken down, the whole thing seems like a farce or to be very specific it is a farce. To begin with, those who retired on or before December 31, 1984 will receive $400 per month from October 1, those who left the public service, between December January 1, 1985 and December 1, 1994 will receive $300 per month. Those who retired between January 1, 1995 and December 31, 1999 $150 per month. Then there are those public servants, who retired in 2000 and up to last year, whose pension are below the $2,000 a month mark, but of course they are not included.

The Prime Minister and Minister of Finance could have done much better, than he has done. He could have used a format, similar to the one used in the National Insurance Scheme, where a large section of the population were making small payments weekly, fortnightly and monthly during their employment years, and when the time came to receive pension, most were under $1,000 per month, but the Finance Minister fixed it, this writer don’t know how he worked it out, but every one is now getting $1,000 per month at least since the last increase. At the PNM 39th Annual Convention at the Chaguaramas Convention Centre, he again mentioned eradicating poverty. If he is serious, he should try to use a format, where the least pension a government pensioner should get is $2,000 per month. If he refuses to do that then eradicating poverty or the term as used in one daily newspaper. “A budget for all” won’t make any sense. Or as I said earlier, the $62 million allocation in the budget when it is broken down is only a farce.

HUGH CUFEY
Cascade