- CLAUDINE HOUSEN/STAFF PHOTOGRAPHER
Community service volunteer, Genever Lawrence (right), gives a hug to Lorine Plummer (72) at the St. James National Council for Senior Citizens Day Activity Centre, in Montego Bay, on Thursday.

Daraine Luton, Staff Reporter

IT TAKES cash to care, and the Government is spending hundreds of millions of dollars catering to the needs of the elderly. But the money hardly goes very far.

According to Mrs. Collette Roberts-Risden, project director of the Programme of Advancement through Health and Education (PATH) just over $300 million is spent each year on the elderly. Under this scheme, elderly persons who show financial needs are given $530 per month to offset their living expenses.

The elderly also benefit from the existence of government agencies and golden age clubs. There are over 100 golden age clubs islandwide, which are monitored by the National Council for Senior Citizens (NCSC). According to its executive director Beverly Hall-Taylor, the NCSC, among other things, helps people prepare for retirement.

Last year, according to the Estimates of Expenditure tabled in Parliament, more than $42 million was spent on the administration and operation of golden age clubs and feeding programmes.

FIGURE EXPECTED TO CLIMB

The amount approved for this financial year has fallen to just over $39.5 million, of which $19.5 million has been earmarked for the compensation of employees. With the Economic and Social Survey of Jamaica reporting 55,896 beneficiaries of the Government's Old Age pension last year each receiving $900 per fortnight, it is estimated that more than $100 million is paid into this stream monthly. This figure is expected to climb this year as the benefit has been increased from $900 per fortnight to $1,500.

Also costing plenty of money to run is the Jamaica Drug for the Elderly Programme (JADEP), administered under the National Health Fund (NHF).

The cost for the JADEP for financial year ending March 2006 was $126 million. This is a big increase from the $30 million spent the previous year. Under JADEP, the NHF subsidises nearly 900 prescription for fifteen chronic diseases. The approximately 140,000 beneficiaries, all of whom are golden agers, pay $40 per month for the dispensing of these drugs.

While the cost of operating the nation's infirmaries could not be ascertained, it is estimated to be in the millions.

Indications are that the cost of caring for the elderly is likely to jump next year. Minister of Labour and Social Security, Derrick Kellier, had announced that the Government intends to assist senior citizens with homes.

"Government will be paying special attention to creating opportunities for the poor and the elderly to own a house of their own and so live in dignity in their old age," Kellier said at the 30th anniversary church service of the National Council for Senior Citizens (NCSC), held at Kings Chapel Pentecostal Church in Montego Bay last month.