Persaud defends gov’t programmes for senior citizens

Human Services Minister Dr Vindhya Persaud yesterday strongly defended the government’s treatment of senior citizens amid criticisms from APNU+AFC MP Natasha Singh-Lewis.

Dissecting the Child Protection Agency (CPA) Singh-Lewis stated that “Can you imagine the situation of our children in this country, and our children on a large scale are being abused? How many of these children are receiving psychological support? Guyana has been fighting the high cost of living and the poor people suffer immensely. The Minister has failed the children and I will give her a f grade. Most of the Muslims in this country voted for a Muslim president because they feel he will make a change but they have failed. I have written to the minister on several days but to date I have not received not even an acknowledgement’.

Giving specifics she stated that “I wrote to you about Mr. Bristol, the senior citizen that was locked away in the house but you took action, so I know you saw the email but you are arrogant so you didn’t respond. I wrote to you about Ms Leonna James and you have not responded but you know of the matter. The CPA is understaffed, underfunded and overwhelmed”, she charged.

 Lauding the banking system implanted for pensioners she blasted the government over a reported pension fraud.

Persaud rejected  the claims, outlining everything done under the Ministry.

“Mister Speaker, we have a budget that speaks to development of a country, while at the same time focusing on all the people in all the regions of this country. Mister Speaker, we have really, in this budget, incentivized hard work. In this budget, we have given the majority of the budget to the social services, notably health and education. Mister Speaker, we’re not in the habit of coming like a magician with a hat and pulling out outlandish promises.

“You want to talk about a f grade? The previous government has not delivered on any promises. The APNU promised to double the pension. Compare that with the PPP/Civic who promised to double the pension. They are getting ($) 41,000.

By this time, Singh-Lewis exited the chambers prompting Persaud to say “that is the normal things, they come here, spit venom and beat out of the chambers”.  Singh-Lewis then heckled “because you are lying, I can’t sit and listen to the lies”.

Persaud noted that 5 billion dollars would’ve been spent on pensioners directly through the cash grant system, while the revolving fund was set up for persons with disabilities.

She stated that $37 billion will be going to pensioners this year.

“And let me start with the senior citizens. I sat here and listened to the fact that this budget does not have anything for our senior citizens. We do not care about our senior citizens. Let me tell you, the budget is $58.5 billion Mister Speaker, $37 billion directly go to our old age pensioners now. Mr. Speaker, in addition to the $37 billion all the other forms of assistance to senior citizens amount to $42 billion which, if you add the public assistance benefits, over 80% of this $58.5 billion will be going directly to the most vulnerable populations in our country”.

“Mister Speaker. I want to say to you very clearly as I stand here when you come here and you peddle misinformation and you want to be very, very much a stranger to the truth, the truth must be told. Mr. Speaker, I have no apology to anyone. Whenever there is fraud, there is dishonesty, I call it out. I call the police in so anything you know, it’s probably me that made that report, and so when the (pension) books were found to be fraudulent, I called the police. I have never shied away from improving and fixing issues, and that is what I did, starting from top to bottom of the Ministry of Human Services and Social Security”.

She added that “Over 4000 pensioners are making use of this. Pensioners can also now cash their vouchers every day of the month because we have introduced alternate venues, Mr. Speaker, there are over 1500 of those alternate venues across this country, and that is what you call care, because no longer do you see those pensioners lining up to cash their old age pension, as they used to, Mr. Speaker, I also want to say to you, pensioners are also receiving their pension via a very caring system started at this ministry called a shut in delivery system, and over 3500 old age pensioners receive their pension and any cash grant in their homes. And I want to say this, Mister Speaker, because our officers go out into all of these areas and deliver that service”.

She added that a direct delivery system would have included 148 communities to which 76 more communities in remote, rural and hinterland areas were added. 

Additionally “we have the Century Club that has been started for all those senior citizens who are over 100 years old, and they’re just under 100 of them, and it’s a beautiful thing to be able to celebrate their lives. We’ve also started a community programme for senior citizens in their community, starting it in the village of Victoria, where I had the pleasure of going in the pouring rain, and this will allow our seniors to engage”.

“We’re investing over $500 million to ensure people with disabilities have the opportunity, have equal opportunity, because we can speak of this party, and we have stepped out on a very strategic direction to ensure that persons living with disabilities benefit equal to any other population in this country. We have been training persons through the same WINN programme that was diminished”.

“For the We Lift exhibition that started with 75 women-owned businesses, this year, we are targeting 350 women-owned businesses”, she said.

“We have a 24-hour toll free hotline, 914, we have the survivor’s advocates programme, a survivor advocate in every region. We also have the safe voucher, the survival kit. We also have expanded our shelters across the region. We have developed the gender-based violence policy framework. We have developed the Guyana model to counter gender-based violence”, she added.