Only 3 of 31 state pensioners collecting payments

Sister Mary Noel Menezes

Since the APNU-AFC coalition government took office in 2015, only three of more than two dozen listed state pensioners have been collecting payments, the Ministry of Finance, which is responsible for issuing the payments, has disclosed.

In response to enquiries by Sunday Stabroek, the ministry said on Friday that 31 state pensioners are recorded in its database. Of that number, only three have been “active” over the past three years. This means that only three pensioners have been collecting payments. It is unclear why the other 28 have not been collecting payments. The names of the beneficiaries listed in the database were not provided.

The State Pension Act states that the award is made by the president if he “considers it desirable, having regard to nature and quality of service rendered to the state by a person….”  It states too that upon the beneficiary’s death, the widow, married and unmarried, is entitled to a half of the state pension being paid up to that point and children under the age of 21 are entitled to a children’s allowance.