The Ministry of Human Services and Social Security has managed to distribute over 80 percent of old age pension books and the remaining beneficiaries who did not turn up to collect their books are urged to get in touch with the officers soon.

In an invited comment yesterday on the telephone, Minister with the portfolio Priya Manickchand said the Ministry’s officers have stopped visiting locations across the country to distribute books.

As such, she said persons who have not managed to seize the opportunity to collect their books are urged to go to the venues where the social services officers are.

The Minister explained that should the beneficiaries wait for extended periods before uplifting their books, they would not be able to uplift payments for previous months. “It’s like you can’t go in May to uplift money for January,” she said.

According to her, the Ministry is presently concentrating on issuing old pension books to shut-ins.

From February 1, she said, the elderly will benefit from a five percent increase as the amount has been raised from $6,300 to $6,600.

Minister of Finance Dr Ashni Singh recently said that Government plans to spend over $4B on old age pensions and public assistance payments during this year.

He emphasised the old age pensions and public assistance programme as amongst the most important interventions by Government aimed at providing assistance to, and improving the lives of, the most vulnerable members of society.

Minister Singh indicated that under these programmes, over 50,000 elderly and otherwise vulnerable beneficiaries are expected to receive direct income support on a monthly basis, which is intended to ensure that the State provides a contribution to such individuals to meet their basic needs.

He added that this support is in addition to other initiatives such as the water rates assistance programme under which Government provides financial support to meet water charges on behalf of old age pensioners; the electricity tariff structure which sees household consumers of small amounts of electricity being billed at a concessional rate; and Government’s residential programme for the elderly such as the Palms and several other health care programmes aimed at enhancing and improving the quality of their lives.

Minister Singh also highly commended the successful steps taken by the Human Services Ministry in improving the timeliness with which old age pension books have been distributed.

He said this has contributed in a very significant way to minimising, and in most cases, eliminating the delay with which beneficiaries can access their entitlements.

Minister Manickchand said recently that she was happy that the pension books could have been issued early, noting that had the Ministry start the distribution process this month, as is customary, many would have received their books until March or April.

To improve the distribution process, Minister Manickchand said if persons are willing to volunteer, a numbering system can be established to make for a smoother process.

She pointed out that that in 2007, President Bharrat Jagdeo announced a large jump of 63 per cent which almost doubled the amount that they were receiving and in 2008, pensioners again saw a five per cent increase.

She further explained that pensioners can also benefit from a water waiver in that, if they have a meter in their name, they can receive relief to approximately $11,000 per month.

She had advised them that, should their water bills exceed that amount, other members of the household should assist in meeting the total.

Minister Manickchand also recalled that, before the People’s Progressive Party (PPP) came into Government, a ‘Means Test’ was done to see if elderly persons had a house, National Insurance Scheme (NIS), children who are employed, a husband or wife, etcetera; and if it was found that they were in possession of any of these, she said they would have been disqualified from receiving the monthly assistance.

At present, however, Manickchand said giving pensions is just a way of thanking senior citizens for serving Guyana well. “We want to make you as comfortable as we can by giving you our contribution. You only have to turn 65 and live in Guyana for two years to benefit from this scheme.”