Runaround for old age pension book

I spent several weeks visiting the locations where officers from the Ministry of Human Services and Social Security were distributing Old Age Pension books. The officers at the different locations where I was advised to go, spent approximately half of an hour checking through several files, but unfortunately, my book was not located.

After checking again last week with the Ministry at Water and Cornhill streets I was told that my book was sent to the Neighbourhood Democratic Council (NDC) Office at Enmore as I reside at Non Pareil.

On January 3rd, 2024 I proceeded to the NDC’s office and, again, the officers spent approximately half of an hour sifting through several files to see whether my book was available.

As I sat and observed this procedure I found it surprising that there was no computerized system in place. This is time consuming and information such as this needs to be readily available.

A few weeks ago, when the cash grant was being distributed, some officers visited my friend’s home to hand over her cash grant as she is ill and they were also giving her a cash grant for her husband who was deceased over a year.

Editor, this clearly shows that there is much work to be done whereby when persons are deceased it is logged into the system immediately.

I am aware that the present government is doing much for the country like the construction of roads and bridges but I would like to suggest that they concentrate on computerizing as much information as possible so as to avoid these mistakes and save time.

Yours faithfully,

(Name and address supplied)