Ministry apologises to pensioners over payments hitch

The Ministry of Labour, Human Services and Social Security on Friday apologized to pensioners who encountered difficulties uplifting their old-age payments from post offices.

It was responding to a news item in the October 10 edition of Stabroek News headlined `Pensioners inconvenienced after post offices run out of money’.

The ministry said that it wished to “publicly state that its policy has been for many years to facilitate the payment of Old Age Pension at post offices throughout the country,regardless of where the pensioners reside. In the past, pensioners were faced with the difficulty of having to uplift their monies only at the Post Office in their respective communities.

“Several measures have been put in place to ensure that pensioners are paid in a timely manner. As of October 1st, 2012, the sum of $316 million was paid to the Guyana Post Office Corporation to effect the payment of Old Age Pension and Public Assistance. There are approximately 42,000 pensioners on the register.  It is the responsibility of the Guyana Post Office Corporation to effect payment in a timely manner.”

The Ministry said that it was not in receipt of any complaints of persons being turned away at the Post Offices referred to in the article.

One pensioner told Stabroek News that on the first of the month, the official day for the distribution of the old age benefit, she visited the Kitty Post Office to uplift her money but was told that there was no money there for her to collect and that she would have to come back at a later date. She stated that when she returned at a subsequent date, she was again turned away because there was no money there for her.

Dizzy and frustrated, she fell down on the road one corner away from the post office and sustained bruises. She had to be assisted by a member of the public to return home.

As it relates to the Campbellville Post Office, another pensioner related her ordeal of having visited the post office multiple times but being unsuccessful in receiving her money. The pensioner related that she knows “there is usually a rush on the first of the month,” and as such waits a few days before she goes in, because “I usually want to give the older people a chance to collect their money first.”

However, when she finally turned up to collect her pension she was told that there was no money and that she would have to come back. She stated that this had happened at least once before so although she was disappointed she did not make a big deal of it. Her disappointment was compounded however when she turned up at the post office for the second time only to be told that she would have to come back at a later date. If this was not bad enough, she said that when she went back for the third time she was told that there still was not any money for her to collect. When Stabroek News visited the Campbellville Post Office, Mr. R Johnson, Post Master for that branch, admitted that delays do occur, but stated that there are several reasons that contribute to this inconvenience.

The first impediment singled out is the new way in which pensions are handed out. According to Johnson, in previous years each post office was responsible for the distribution of pensions exclusively to persons from their respective districts, as such, it was much easier to manage the distribution since each post office would know how many pensioners reside in their district and make requests for the corresponding sums of cash. However, since policies changed to allow any pensioner to collect from any post office “it has become harder to cater to all of the requests being made.” He also explained that in addition to old age pension, National Insurance Scheme (NIS) Pensions are paid out by Post Offices on the first Monday of every month. Johnson stated that ever so often a clash occurs and both NIS and Old Age Pension have to be paid out simultaneously which puts additional strain on the Post Office.