Bahamas News

The government has committed to allocating an estimated $12 million per year or $1 million per month to fund increases in the pensions of 26,312 people throughout the country.

A resolution brought to the House of Assembly this week by Prime Minister Perry Christie is one of the first crucial steps made to give effect to the increases through an amendment to the National Insurance Act.

If approved, it would become the first adjustment to pensions since 2001 when minimum contributory pensions were increased from $210 to $230 per month and assistance pensions were increased from $180 to $200 per month, according to the Prime Minister.

The last adjustment he said, that impacted higher income pensioners occurred in 1999.

House Members were told that the proposed increase would be applied in three ways.

According to Mr. Christie, who once served as the Minister of National Insurance in the Pindling administration, persons who were awarded the retirement benefit at age 65 years or older and who now receive the minimum amount of $230, will get $270.

Persons, he said, who were awarded the benefit at age 64 years and who receive $220.80 per month will get $259.20 and persons who were awarded the benefit at age 60 to 63 years, who are receiving $205 monthly would be bumped up to $250 per month.

“The proposed increases are designed to first provide a reasonable replacement of their lost value of the pension due to the effects of inflation since the start of the pension or the last adjustment,” the Prime Minister explained.

“One dollar awarded in 1990, for example, will have a reduced purchasing value today. A dollar in 1990 could perhaps have purchased a tin of cream and a tin of sardines. Today, it would barely cover the cost of the sardines. The proposed increases will help to maintain the purchasing power of the pension.”

The Prime Minister further explained that persons who receive invalidity, adult survivors or industrial death benefits at $230 per month would now get $270 monthly once the amendment takes effect.

If passed, the resolution would ensure that dependent children who receive survivors/industrial death benefits at the rate of $95 per month would get a $15 increase to $110.

Benefits to dependent orphans would be increased to the flat rate of $125 per month.

“Those assessed at 100 percent disablement would receive an increase from $230 to $270 per month,” said Prime Minister Christie.

“Secondly, increases would also be applied to pensions that currently exceed the respective minimum pension rates and these increases would be based on the start date of the pension.”

Mr. Christie noted that for persons who were awarded pensions in 1998 or before, a 15 percent increase has been proposed; those awarded in 1999 and 2000 would receive a 12 percent increase, and an eight percent increase would be approved for individuals awarded pensions in 2001 and 2002.

Pensioners as of 2003 and 2004 are to receive a five percent jump in payment and for those awarded in 2005, 2006 and up to February 2007 there is a proposed increase of three percent.

The increases are to take effect for deposits at bank accounts on April 12th and for distribution at pay stations on April 19th.

According to the Prime Minister, for those whose payments go directly into bank accounts, there would be two deposits made; for those who collect payments at pay stations, there would be two cheques.

“One deposit/cheque will represent the old pension amount, the other deposit/cheque will represent the amount of the pension increases for March and April,” Mr. Christie said.

Courtesy of The Bahama Journal