By Trudy Simpson, Staff ReporterSTOP TAKING advantage of us. That is what scores of Government pensioners are demanding of various commercial establishments. Speaking with The Gleaner at Saturday's annual general meeting of the Jamaica Government Pensioners' Association, some pensioners complained that businesses often overcharged them for goods and services or failed to return their change at the end of the transactions.
They are asking business owners to help them because every dollar is important to persons with small pensions.
"Whatever the percentage increase is, it would affect my net income and make serious inroads into my quality of life and standard of living. Price increases have also affected pharmaceuticals," lamented Oscar Hammond, 73, who served in the Local Government administration for 40 years before retiring 15 years ago.
ROBBING SOME CONSUMERS
Sylvia McNeil, head of the Manchester chapter of the Pensioners' Association, agreed.
"The commercial people are still digging out your eye. For example, I used to pay $87 for a tub of margarine. That was without tax and now I go back and I find that they have put it up to $101, plus tax, and now some shops, they charge you $100 for half-pound. They are robbing the consumers and... they don't give us back our change. When you ask them back for it, they say they don't have any change," she fumed.
Several businesses, among them pharmacies and supermarkets, offer discounts to senior citizens or put in senior citizens' check-out lines but these don't go far enough, seniors say.
EXORBITANT COSTS
Mrs. McNeil, a retired teacher, and others, are distressed at prices charged by dentists and medical laboratories. She said that pensioners pay up to $6,000 for one test at medical laboratories and $4,000 at the dentist, to put in a filling, or $3,500 to clean their teeth.
"We know that things have gone up but the shops are taking advantage. For the younger ones, they are working and can manage that but we are not working," she said.
A retired police officer and executive member of the Pensioners' Association, lamented the state in which many pensioners live.
"Government should do much better. I know times are hard (but) it's really pathetic to see the conditions under which they live. Right now, there is a pensioner who is a dialysis patient and he sends me correspondence dealing with arrears for medical bills at the University (Hospital of the West Indies) and it is in excess of $400,000," said Egerton Wynter. He said that the pensioner, who gets treatment twice weekly, was now getting help from the Finance Ministry's pension and relief fund.
Also, he spoke about a widow who was unable to gather enough funds for funeral expenses four months after her husband had died.
