AGING POPULATION: LIFE BEGINS AT 60

- A fair deal for older people

Presently, there is a debate raging about the promised Old Age pension (recall also that the former regime had changed the Old Age pension to a Senior Citizens grant, but no one had issues with this, considering that in this form they are not entitled to such).

The leader of the opposition, Dr. Rowley has produced Proof of People’s Partnership hoodwinking (my words). I am with the Opposition leader on this 100%, no longer should politicians be allowed to stand on a platform and spew rubbish thinking that the voting population is so gullible that they will swallow the vile that emanates form their holes.

On Pg.41 of the People's Partnership Manifesto, they stated under sub heading Social Development the following:

There must therefore be a social security system that guarantees to retired persons a decent life. We owe it to our seniors to reward them for their contribution to our Nation.

Our Government will:

• Protect the rights of the Elderly.

• Provide incentives for medical students to specialize in Geriatric Medicine to care for our aging population in Trinidad & Tobago.

• Develop school-based programmes to promote interaction between the young and the elderly in their communities.

- Reinstatement of the Old Age Pension Act. Pensions must be an entitlement and not a grant.

- Pension laws must be amended to provide for the national and regional portability of pension benefits and for improved pension benefits.

- Remove all restrictions and qualifications for people to receive an Old Age Pension and thus every citizen will automatically receive a State-funded Old Age Pension upon the attainment of pensionable age.

- Increase the value of the monthly old aged pension entitlement to $3,000."

It is necessary to examine the Manifesto in detail as opposed to just taking in the platform rhetoric. This is the problem with this backward place we call a country. People have limited themselves to what the politicians say on the campaign and have effectively encouraged this type of behaviour rather than demand more. This morning on the Bold & Boldface show on Power 102, the Minister of Works, the honourable Jack Warner admitted that what is out there is an error in relation to campaign ads. I questioned this and asked how can this be if after being run the first time, someone should have picked it up and address the error. Error my ass!!!

However, from the Manifesto something seems to conflict with what was said on the campaign, and again, this is what we should have been looking at instead of the platform rhetoric.

The People’s Partnership, clearly stated that:

…they will reinstate the Old Age Pension Act and that Pensions must be an entitlement not a grant they will remove

…the restrictions and qualifications for receiving Old Age Pension and “thus” every citizen will automatically receive this Pension

…increase the entitlement to $3,000

From the above excerpt, I am having great difficulty in understanding how people can misrepresent the facts on this issue. The facts as I see it are, that the Government does in fact has a policy that Old Age Pension should in fact be mandatory, at and age of 60 and that this pension will be $3,000.

However, after three months in office, I am sure that we don’t expect the Government to wave a wand and make this happen. There is a process, legislation will need to go to parliament, amendments will have to be made etc and then this can take effect. But there are those who are bent on sticking to the one part in the Manifesto which state “every citizen will automatically receive a State-funded Old Age Pension” without even trying to understand the English language.

In concluding, I will say this, if this Government believes that they can make wild promises and then forget about them or claim that they were errors, they better know that this voter eh buying that bull shit.