Fitz Jackson
John Myers Jr., Staff Reporter
SCORES OF pensioners walked away yesterday from their annual general meeting disappointed, after being informed that there would be no increase in their pension allocations.
They were told that Government had failed to honour its promise last year to give them a better deal.
Clinton Davis, president of the Jamaica Government Pensioners' Association (JGPA), told its members that despite several efforts to contact the Ministry of Finance, to comment on the issue there has been no response.
According to Mr. Davis, "The amount allotted to us this year was the same $200 million that we got the year before and it was grossly inadequate.
"But what really hurt us and what annoy us immensely was the unsatisfactory and unfair method in which the distribution was done."
Mr. Davis explained that pensioners at the bottom of the scale would not benefit as much as they did in the past five years. "Five years ago we got the Government to accept a policy whereby those at the lower end would not get the same as those at the top; they would get something that would eventually bring them up and unfortunately that was not done this year and so we had pensioners who were getting $10,000 a year, getting an increase of 10 per cent which was $1,000 per month," he explained.
He said this was unacceptable and vowed that the JGPA would lobby for change.
At the JGPA's 37th annual general meeting last year, the association outlined that it had a meeting with Fitz Jackson, State Minister of Finance in February where he acknowledged the difficulties being experienced by pensioners. The JGPA noted that it was "very encouraged by his admission of the pensioners' plight and his implied promise to support our representations for improvement, which included a promise by the Minister for special attention to pensioners who retired prior to 1995."
EXPERIENCING DIFFICULTIES
Mr. Davis, in his representations to the Government, pointed out the difficulties pensioners were experiencing. For example, for persons who retired in 1980, the value of their pension is now less than it was back then mainly because of devaluation and inflation which has risen more than 400 per cent since.
This news was greeted with disgust by the senior citizens, some of whom had to be guided into the venue by younger relatives; others used walking sticks.
"It's not good enough, it is the same I'm hearing every year; no response from the Ministry of Finance," grumbled one elderly gentleman.
Another pensioner shouted angrily that he was receiving a meagre $2,025 per fortnight after 27 years of service as a Post Office Inspector.
Mr. Davis assured the pensioners that, "We are going to do everything that we can to ensure that whatever is forthcoming this year, is distributed on a more equitable basis."
