One day after President Irfaan Ali announced a $28,000 one-off grant to old-age pensioners, the Alliance For Change (AFC) has called on the government to significantly increase the figure in line with the rising cost of living.
On Thursday, Ali said that the one-off grant would provide an additional $1.8 billion in disposable income to pensioners. This is the second time in two years that the government has granted a one-off grant to pensioners. Last year pensioners received a $25, 000 one-off grant.
Yesterday, the AFC said that while it welcomes the announcement more should be done to assist the vulnerable population.
“Although many including pensioners might receive this announcement with jubilation, the AFC continues to reject the subjective, underhand distribution of one-off cash grants that continues to take place, without the guarantee of fair, equal distribution to all deserving and with the requisite checks and balances in place to avoid the corruption we have seen in several of these programmes,” the party Chair Cathy Hughes said during a press conference.
Hughes said that while the APNU+AFC Coalition was in power, they managed to increase old age pension from $13,500 to $20,500. She said that AFC now finds it “totally unacceptable” that the government is not making any steps to have the amount increased.
Currently, old-age pensioners receive $28,000 per month.
“The fact that in fashioning this small donation the Government did not see it fit to raise the pension base so that any increase granted would not be a one-off but received every month is deplorable and testimony to how little they care. With all sectors complaining of the massive price increases citizens face today, how do we expect the most venerable in our society – our pensioners to survive,” Hughes said.
She noted that by increasing the pension amount, the government woauld also be relieving the burden of the high cost of living on the pensioners. Additionally, Hughes said that the one-off grants are havens for corruption and discrimination.
“So increase the pensions rate at the baseline, not in a one-off for us to hear at a later date this body didn’t get, this body got and all the different challenges that have been faced with the previous cash grants,” she said.
When asked what she thinks would be an appropriate increase, Hughes said “…the discussion has been that $100,000 is a minimum given today’s world. The price increases we have faced in Guyana over the last year and therefore I would like to say that anywhere in the vicinity of $100,000 is what our pensioners should be getting at this point in time. We don’t need to go into the benefits of their contributions to Guyana. We have a phenomenon now where many of their relatives are overseas and many of them are here on their own. So anything starting from the vicinity of $75,000 right up to $100,000 we feel would be fair.”
The AFC also called on the government to publish the names of the recipients of cash grants in an effort to be more transparent.
Since taking office, the Ali government has been distributing a number of one-off cash grants to sections of society, such as farmers, fishermen, persons with disabilities, and hinterland and riverine households, among others.a
