In recent weeks, Jamaicans who receive pensions from the British government have received letters from the Department of Work and Pensions in the U.K. advising that if they receive these pensions in Jamaican bank accounts, the transfers will have to be in Jamaican currency.

In other words, if they used to receive their pension payments in sterling, U.S. or Canadian dollars and/or Dutch kroners, that will have to end.

The U.K. authorities in their letters sent to several thousand Jamaican pensioners said that they would have begun to enforce this arrangement from September, although it now seems that full implementation is unlikely until year-end. What is not clear, though, is why has the United Kingdom decided to insist on paying its Jamaican pensioners living in Jamaica only in Jamaican currency.

The British High Commission in Kingston claimed to be giving Jamaicans a reason, but succeeded only in laying out a thick paving of waffle, except for its declaration that it has long been the policy of the Department of Work and Pensions "that payments are sent throughout the world in the currency of the country in which the recipient bank is located".

Apparently, the department recently found out that it has been paying thousands of Jamaicans in greenbacks, sterling and other currencies that are not Jamaican dollars. That, however, still does not answer the question of why this is a problem.

At another time, in another epoch, we might have suggested that that the British are faced with a major balance of payments problems and that Harold Wilson or Ted Heath or some other leader was seeking to implement exchange controls. Retro-Britannia of sorts.

But it is a long time since the discovery of North Sea oil, since the people at Number 10 told the IMF not to bother, since Big Bang in the City and since the lady declared that she was "not for turning". Indeed, it has been quite a stint since Tony Blair discovered that there could be something New in Labour and he and Gordon Brown began waxing warm about the notions and ideals of globalisation. Indeed, the City is a global capital market. The Brits know more than a thing or two about currency trading and conversions.

It is, therefore, curious that in a sophisticated financial and banking environment fostered by the Exchequer, the U.K. government would tell its pensioners in Jamaica that it will send them their money only in Jamaican dollars. (We assume that this applies to all British pensioners living in Jamaica and not only those who were born in Jamaica, emigrated to the U.K. and have since retirement returned home.)

These are pensioners living abroad and paid, we assume, out of the same pension fund to which they contributed while they worked. And it is not as if the British have tons of Jamaican dollars lying around and are now repatriating them, as though they were globally transferable.

It is quite possible that a benevolent bureaucrat has had an epiphany. Now, there are those Jamaican pensioners who are being confused with foreign currency. Let's solve the problem for the poor chaps by making sure they receive only Jamaican dollars. Dear, dear.

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