Antigua and Barbuda: All eligible pensioners must provide all documentation necessary for registration

Antigua and Barbuda: The Cabinet invited the Managing Director of the Social Security Board to address the issue of pensioners not being registered, upon the presentation of inadequate documentation.

All retired persons who are eligible for a pension must provide all the documentation necessary for registration to be complete. The Cabinet is giving consideration to having provisional registration until such time as all the documents required are presented to Social Security. ii. The Director appeared on a radio program recently and was asked about payments to Social Security, made by the current and prior administrations. The current leader of the UPP who served as Finance Minister from 2009 to 2014 was also on the same radio program. The former Minister asserted that his administration provided a Government bond that was the equivalent of making a full payment to the Social Security Scheme current by 2014. The Director conceded during the Cabinet meeting that no administration has provided the cash necessary to make payments to Social Security Pensioners like the current administration. $30 million dollars a year (and more) have been paid by this current administration to Social Security. A bond is not cash, the Director conceded. The Covid-19 pandemic, which caused the hotels to close and many employees of other industries to be laid-off, adversely affected Social Security payments and to slow the progress made in eliminating the debt to Social Security. As the economy recovers, payments to Social Security will also increase, the Cabinet asserted. iii. The picket organized by the UPP in front of Social Security office on Long Street was dismissed by the Cabinet for its hypocrisy. The Cabinet recognizes that the funding for Social Security had dried up by June 2014. The Social Security Board had inadequate funding for payments in early 2014; that condition led to a rush of pensioners who slept on the steps of Social Security building in order to be closer to the head of the queue in the morning. Empathetic and concerned Patriots would regularly provide hot bush tea and snacks to the senior citizens who subjected themselves to hours of waiting for payments, during the years of the former administration.