Old-age pension not automatic

A senior citizen’s pension is not automatic on reaching the age of 65.

This was the ruling of a High Court judge who dismissed a lawsuit brought by a pensioner against the Local Public Assistance Board (LPAB), who claimed his pension was withheld from him from February 2013 to February 2016.

Lenwald Morris applied for his pension in February 2013, when he turned 65.

This claim was disallowed in 2014 because he failed to provide certain information for the board to assess his eligibility.

He chose not to appeal this decision and applied again in February 2016.

His second application was deferred ten times so that he could supply information on his Canadian pension eligibility and to correct issues in his claim.

His second application was eventually approved in April 2017.

Justice Joan Charles was asked to determine whether the LPAB’s decision to refuse to grant Morris a pension from February 2013 to February 2016 was fraudulent, unlawful, unreasonable, irrational and unfair. She said, “Sections 3 and 4 of the Senior Citizens’ Pension Act reveals that the receipt of a senior citizen’s pension is not automatic upon attaining the age of 65.”

She said to receive a pension, the applicant must satisfy the criteria in section 4.

Charles said in Morris’s case, the board first had to determine if he was getting a pension from Canada, where he lived and worked for several years, in order to decide whether he was entitled to receive a pension locally in part, or at all.

She said when his first application was refused, he was entitled to submit his claim to the Central Board, and if it was refused there, then he could appeal to the minister.

Morris did not do so. He said employees of the local board told him to ignore the notice and submit a new application later.

The judge did not accept that he was persuaded to ignore the process to be followed after his first claim was denied.

She also said he made no attempt to contact the board from 2013 to 2014, and did not agree that his waiting for the information from Canada should be the basis for the LPAB to grant him a pension under his first application.

“The applicant’s first claim for a pension having been disallowed, that time frame could not be calculated in determining the commencement date of the claimant’ s pension.”

Since Morris is a pensioner, Charles made no orders for him to pay the local board’s legal bills.

He was represented by attorneys Raisa Caesar and Manisha Latchman. Roshan Ramcharitar, Andrew Cole and Khadine Matthew represented the board.

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