PRESIDENT, Dr. Mohamed Irfaan Ali has announced that his administration will be making available another $2.6B to pensioners and other vulnerable groups in the country, in an attempt to further improve their quality of life. This is in addition to the several other incentives given to the elderly such as increases in old age pension, subsidised water and electricity, and removal of value-added taxes on essential food items and basic services.

Pensioners are the major beneficiaries of the new relief measures announced by the President which will see a cash payment of $25,000 dollars to every old age pensioner. This is equivalent to an additional month’s pension which is a welcome gesture given the fact that pensioners are unable to earn at the same level as when in active employment.

Our pensioners deserve no less. They have expended all their productive lives to our development and it is only fair that they spend the remainder of their lives in a secure and dignified manner. The current PPP/C administration has, in just over a year, demonstrated a strong commitment to our senior citizens. President Ali has personally been involved in efforts to bring relief to the elderly by way of the distribution of food hampers and other engagements. ‘To our elderly, of course you have contributed significantly to our country. You are also a great asset to our country’, said President Ali who vowed to further healthcare and other benefits for seniors.

The cash grant payable to pensioners is much more than an act of putting more money in the wallets of our senior citizens. At a more fundamental level, it is an act of humanity, an expression of love and concern for the well-being of our pensioners who would have contributed to the country’s development in one way or the other and who are now looking forward to enjoying their sunset years.

In a special address to the nation, President Ali said that the one-off cash grant of $25,000 will be given to all old-age pensioners and will benefit some 65,000 persons, which will go a far way in increasing their disposable income.

In addition to pensioners, a similar one-off cash grant will be given to all recipients of public assistance and persons living with disabilities which will benefit about 25,000 persons. Further, an electricity credit will be paid to the Guyana Power and Light Inc. on behalf of all households consuming less than 75 kilowatt of electricity per month. The credit to each household will be equivalent to an average of one month of their electricity bill which will benefit 40,000 households. As the President correctly reminded, all of these new interventions are running concurrently with the $25,000 COVID-19 cash grant, the $19,000 education cash grant and $7.8 billion in flood relief cash grant.

These are substantial sums of money and they do come at a cost but, as the President has repeatedly reminded, the welfare of our people must at all times take precedence over any other consideration. In the final analysis, money cannot be an end in itself but the means to a greater end, namely the satisfaction of the material and cultural needs of people, especially the most vulnerable in our society.

President Ali and his PPP/C administration must be commended for putting people at the centre of its developmental agenda. There was a time under the previous administration when our senior citizens were given the ‘royal push around’ to receive even the pittance they were entitled to. The long, dehumanising and agonising waits at post offices and other places of pension payments still leave a bitter taste among pensioners who can now breathe a sigh of relief over the ease in which they can uplift their pensions.

Gone are the days when old age pension payments were dependent on a means test which effectively denied a significant number of senior citizens from obtaining pensions. It was the PPP/C administration that brought to an end the means test thereby making it possible for all eligible Guyanese, regardless of their economic status to receive pensions.

Age must not be a deterrent in the enjoyment of a decent and satisfying life. Indeed, societies are judged on how they treat with the elderly and the vulnerable. The PPP/C administration has not been found wanting in this regard.