More Elderly To Be Added To Social Pension Programme

The Ministry of Labour and Social Security is expecting to increase the number of beneficiaries on its Social Pension Programme to 20,000 during the 2022/2023 financial year, as it seeks to widen its scope of assistance.

Portfolio Minister, Hon. Karl Samuda, who made the disclosure in his contribution to the Sectoral Debate in the House of Representatives on Tuesday (April 26), said the budget is in place to facilitate this uptake.

He noted that the Ministry has engaged unattached youth in the initiative.

“In order to do that, we have employed a brigade of [unemployed] youngsters to go from one end of the island to the other, to go out into the field and find the elderly,” the minister explained.

In 2021, the Ministry received Cabinet approval for a Social Pension Programme to be implemented for persons 75 years and older who are not beneficiaries under any other programme.

These persons must not be in receipt of a private or public pension, other retirement income or social protection benefits and must not be institutionalised within a government-owned facility.

The first payments were made on July 15, 2021 to some 2,000 elderly Jamaicans. At the end of the financial year 2020/21, the number had increased to 7,412.

He noted, also, that the Ministry will be rolling out the Life Certificate initiative, which will confirm that persons who are registered and in receipt of benefit payments under the Social Pension Programme are eligible to continue to receive these payments.