Mohit to get more details on pensions backlog

THE Minister of the People, Social Development and Family Services Vandana Mohit said a meeting with stakeholders on June 4 will reveal the challenges causing delays in processing applications for pensions.

She made the statement at the post-cabinet media briefing on May 29.

Earlier this week, Mohit expressed her ministry's intention to take action to address a backlog in processing senior citizens’ pension applications and applications to the Immigration division.

On May 29, while responding to questions, she said after a meeting with the Ministry of Finance and the Ministry of Homeland Security, the ministry will take the decision on whether to continue with the current system or go back to the walk-in system that was used before.

“What I can share with you is that there is an electronic system where the requests are placed by the Ministry of Social Development to these two entities, and it is just a waiting process.

“I cannot speak to why NIB (National Insurance Board) is not responding or immigration is not responding. Maybe it is because of their workload. This is one of the things that was discussed when we worked on this.”

Earlier this week, Mohit said 1,438 immigration queries and 2,292 NIB queries are pending further information for processing.