Dear Editor,
Much has been written on the senior citizens pension on both sides of the argument — in favour and critical of how it is being distributed. I would like to contrast the present distribution and the amount given to seniors from some five decades ago.
I remember growing up in the late 1960s and early 1970s as a little boy, my aja picking up his old age (ex gratis) pension at the Port Mourant (PM) estate payroll office on Fridays. Other old folks also went there as did sugar workers to uplift their pay in cash in an envelope. It was the norm throughout the country that those closest to a sugar estate picked up their pension from the estate payroll office. Although PM estate (factory) was closed in the late 1950s, payroll and pension continued to be distributed at the payroll office up until recently. I am not certain when it was closed down to make way for a Hospitality Center. Graves were graded down to construct the center although I am told work had stopped because Exxon found it untenable and inappropriate to grade down graves to build a training center. The location was shifted away from the graveyard after my objection. That payroll office can be used to distribute pension.
Regarding the amount old age pensioners received, it was $5 (a green note) for many years as I could remember throughout the 1960s and 1970s. Five dollars was a lot of money in those days although Jagan used to rail against the white man that it was too small. Inflation was nonexistent. Prices of foods were stable. I remember my father giving my sisters $5 every Friday over many years to purchase the weekly grocery or ration. We were a family of 13. $5 fed us with surplus or change left over. Five dollars purchased 10 pounds flour, 10 pounds sugar; five pounds potatoes; five pint dhal, 2 pounds onions, 1 pound garlic, 2 pound salt, 2 pounds channa, 1 large tin sardines, 1 tin Ovaltine, and several other items. Some fine change remained for my sisters to buy some sweets on the way home. People got value for money.
Old age pensioners got a minimum of $20 monthly around 1970 that could purchase a month’s groceries. Today, old age pensioners get $27,000 a month. Can $27,000 be enough to purchase groceries for a week (forget a month) for a family of four? And my family was 13 and we lived well off $20. In traveling around and checking on family expenditures, the average monthly expenses for groceries this year is $100,000. The minimum wage is $70,000. How does a family of four earning minimum wage survive? Government should make pension distribution convenient and easily disbursed for seniors — a bank card or pick up at a bank or some easily accessible location. Also, the amount of pension given old age people should be equivalent to purchase basic foods for a month. And the minimum wage needs to increase significantly to catch up with inflation.
Sincerely,
Vishnu Bisram
