The Ministry of Social Protection will be putting measures in place to ensure Guyanese who live in other countries do not access a Guyanese pension. This information was related to the Government Information Agency (GINA) in a recent interview with Minister of Social Protection, Volda Lawrence.
Minister Lawrence described it as ‘double dipping’ when persons not living in Guyana, access pension from both the Guyanese government and the country in which they live.
“We will be putting an end to persons who are ‘double dipping’…we have persons who believe that it is their right to live in a foreign country and collect their pensions here…we are saying no, it is not going to happen,” Minister Lawrence said.
She added that last year, this issue was brought to the attention of the staff of the ministry who were advised they will be held responsible and surcharged where books are issued with them knowing the persons do not live in Guyana.
Persons desirous of accessing old age pension will have to be living in Guyana for a minimum of two years.
Minister Lawrence explained that the issue of double dipping is not limited to accessing pension, but also public assistance for school aged children. She explained that some students are beneficiaries of public assistance in Guyana, but they also benefit from similar assistance in neighbouring Brazil.
“To address this, guardians will have to submit an attendance report for the child so that they can continue accessing such assistance,” Minister Lawrence explained.
Additionally, the Ministry will be digitalising the pension system to make it more efficient in identifying redundancies in the system. The digitised database will also indicate to the ministry persons who are authorising others to collecttheir pensions, which is an indication that they are not in Guyana.
The digitalising of the pension database will also see greater accountability within the pension system, and probation officers will have more time do additional field work and conduct visitations.
The Social Protection Ministry has engaged the Ministry of Public Telecommunications to ensure that the two agencies can collectively run a pilot of this electronic project. (GINA)
This is total senseless. How can you go about depriving the privalage of these loyal citizen of dear Guyana .who devoted their time and and sacrifically paid their Nis and taxes with the hope of harvesting their benifits when the time is right. NOW ms lawrence is saying its not ok. Please these people work for it. WHAT did she do to deserve a hefty pay hike in a few weeks ?????. I will call that triple dipping.
So shameless .I am pretty sure she dont have a grandmother,grandfather, parents,aunt or uncle who are pensioner overseas.
MY grandparents are American citizen but now spending most if their time in Guyana should the American govt deprive them of their pension. The new govt have proven their greed and incompetence.
The minister,is a complete asshole,if someone work their lives in guyana and are elegeable for receiving pension, and now living overseas, they Have to get it,because it’s their benefits. The minister cannot deny no one of this.She is a servant for the people, Not a dictator
Some people dense. This is old pension you don’t have to work to collect that pension. Geez people read and understand.
People live in America, paid their taxes, complete their 40 quarters and go back home to live. They collect their pension from here in Guyana, why is it that Guyana can’t do the same, vise versa. Shame on all you system.
I think that the Country should not be persecuting the overseas pensioners; Have they not contributed to their Country when they were younger? don’t they deserve some small gratitude dispite where they reside now.
This is nonsense. NIS enjoyed collected everyone’s money for years. I don’t care where the people live now. They paid their dues and should collect their pension regardless of where they live.
This Minister is a dictator who operating like Burnham who denied all those people who were in a higher economic strata their pension in the late seventies/early eighties. This is typical PNC way of thinking, they are always finding ways not to pay the people their dues. This minister is saying that you can’t live in a foreign country and get pension from Guyana. What about all those Guyanese who have dual citizenship and live in Guyana and is getting pension from overseas? The foreign country should do likewise?
Why didn’t this APNU government think that the ministers should have to work at least one year or two years before any increase in their salary much less 50% in just a few weeks? This is total hypocrisy. However, better cannot be expected from this incompetent, corrupt APNU government.
Triple filling for someone’s pocket in Govt,does this minister not recognize the domino effect it will cause,these people earned it,working hard and retiring should not be viewed as stealing,people must be free to live wherever they choose.
C B JAGAN,or L F S BURNHAM will never tolerate such utter nonsense.
Seriously???? There are several Guyana-born seniors who woud have worked and retired in Guyana, and subsequently would have emigrated to another country where they would not be eligible for a pension simply because they would never have contributed to that country’s Pension Plan. There will be no “double dipping” in this scenario, therefore, according to this press release, is Ms Lawrence saying that the emigrant retiree’s pension will be withheld only because the retiree no longer lives in Guyana??
Well guess what MInister you know how many pensioners living in Guyana and getting their money deposited directly from abroad. They are spending this money in Guyana. Guess I will not be retiring there.