Dear Editor,
I took a quick look at SN’s and KN’s editions from yesterday. Nothing. Then, a slow and serious second look was done. Still no announcement of when and where the 2025 pension book distribution exercise will take place. Because it is now past the middle of November, something that has not been done in years was tried. I went beyond the regular news sections of the two papers. I looked into the weekend magazine pages to see if the notice and details of next year’s Ministry of Social Protection and Human Services spearheaded pension book distribution were in there. Still nothing.
Editor, at the risk of understatement, this has to be a tad worrying for many senior citizens. It is usually a time consuming and stressful exercise for Guyanese elderly to collect that precious pension book, as the experiences of recent years have shown. And this was when it was earlier, all but done around this date in November. Other than for the stragglers and cases that call for special handling by Social Protection, the entire process is finished, with the usual smattering of post-mortems signaling closure. I understand this year’s delay, and it is for the best of reasons. The security of the pension books needs to be enhanced, and the Ministry of Finance has been given the job. I must wonder how much more pressure this adds on the Finance Ministry. It’s already busy working on refining an App to ensure a smooth and credible process for the now long announced and much anticipated $100,000 cash grant. Guyanese could use that money now, which means that the earlier it is in their hands, the more comfortable they will be. The fact that there is this trouble with the 2025 pension books only deepens the anxieties of many older Guyanese and their families. The unexpected and unfortunate delay is bad, and given that it is happening at the time of the year only makes matters worse.
The cash grant development and wait collide with collection of pension books. The roads, which are normally bad, now go from bad to unbelievable. People and machines slow to an excruciating crawl. Lines are long and everywhere in the city. As matters stand, the Ministry of Finance is the key, and it will not give the go ahead for the printing (if that is involved) of replacement pension books, once the needed security feature is embedded. Reasonably speaking, the go ahead for pension books to be distributed could spill over into December. I can see most Georgetown pensioners recoiling in horror. Whoever wants to be on any road in Georgetown in December has more patience and more stomach than me. But I don’t think there is any way around this scenario that I am sketching. Incidentally, this is looking at the issue optimistically. As an aside, the thought of some may be that the first pension collection for 2025 is still six weeks away, so there is no rush to put out books for the sake of doing so. I agree, and also appreciate that the Ministry of Finance must get their security feature right, even if more time is required. The concern is that pensioners are hanging on to the edge of their seats waiting for any news on collection. With all systems running, most of them could receive the $100,000 cash grant between now and the last days of this month. The 2025 pension books could take longer, and that is not such a delightful prospect, for the reasons stated above. Regular updates would provide some needed relief.
Sincerely,
GHK Lall