Government: Pension $25k ‘savings’ clause was a mistake

ATTORNEY GENERAL Reginald Armour and Minister of Social Development Donna Cox say a clause to amend the law governing pensions, which proposed that people at pensionable age who have $25,000 in savings would not be eligible for the pension, was a mistake.

The ministers said the clause was put into the Senior Citizens Pension and Public Assistance Bill 2024 by a public servant, despite Cox’s defence of the clause to another newspaper in a story published on December 18.

The two ministers, in a press conference at the Ministry of Social Development on St Vincent Street on December 18, said the government will withdraw the draft bill and replace it with one that does not include that clause.

Armour said the government made amendments to the criteria which included age, income and residential qualifications to make people eligible for the pension grant.

That version of the policy came to Parliament in March. Armour said there was nothing in that cabinet note that addressed pensioners’ savings.

“It turns out as a result of the discussions that we had today and the research that I did, someone in the public service during the proceedings of the legislative review committee (LRC) had introduced an issue to the word ‘savings.’

“It appears now from looking at the bill, the provision was inserted in the bill, came back to Cabinet on November 21, 2024, and the provision in the bill that deals with savings…

“That part of savings was inserted. Regrettably it would not appear that was addressed at the LRC stage before it came to Cabinet.

“So when it came to Cabinet on November 21 and Cabinet approved the policy with no reference to savings in that note, the bill was approved and laid in Parliament.”

When asked why he did not see the added clause, Armour said he did not review the bill because he was not in the country at the time.

At that time the acting Attorney General was Marvin Gonzales.

“I am not pointing any fingers. I take full responsibility,” Armour said. “I read the bill before it was laid in Parliament (and) when it was brought to the Cabinet on November 21 in the final draft that was brought before Parliament, I was not in the country.
"Now that it has come to my attention I am addressing it.”

Speaking at a sod-turning event in Diego Martin earlier in the day, the Prime Minister said adjustments to the draft legislation were made without the approval of the Cabinet.

“All of this was news to me,” Dr Rowley said. “The first note that went to the Cabinet, I didn’t see that.

“I wasn’t in the country. The bottom line is, the bill has to be withdrawn.”

Cox, in response to the Guardian newspaper on December 17, said people were abusing the grant by transferring their business and assets to family to collect a pension.

On Wednesday, she said the clause was to block the loopholes to ensure the pension goes to those most vulnerable.

She told the Guardian, “The pension is not for abuse because it’s taxpayers’ money.
"This is non-contributory, it is something to help people who are poor and vulnerable. There are many people who live on their pension because they have never worked in their lives or their children are not taking care of them.

"Those people are who the pension is for, not for people who have money and still feel they should get the pension.”

At the press conference yesterday, Armour said the abuses he knew of concerned people who were not normal residents of the country accessing the pension as if they were.

“There are other people who are otherwise entitled for pension because they have reached the age, who live outside of TT and are having people collect pensions on their behalf, even though they don’t meet the residential qualifications that entitle them to receive pensions.”

He said the new legislation was intended to shore up the criteria so that people could not abuse the pension qualifications.

Responding to the press conference, Opposition Leader Kamla Persad-Bissessar said she did not believe the clause was added to the bill by mistake.

She was speaking to members of the media at the Rotunda Gallery at the Red House after she and opposition MPs, senators and local government councillors signed the condolence book for minister in the Ministry of Education Lisa Morris-Julian.

Morris-Julian and two of her children – Xianne, 25, and Jesiah, six – died in a fire at their Farfan Street, Arima home on December 16.

After the signing, Persad-Bissessar responded to the government’s withdrawal of the draft bill.

“This bill was laid in the house on December 9. Today is the 18th. You just discovered that you made an error?

“They are saying that they will withdraw, but do you know what they will really do? Just as they did with property tax, just as they will do with electricity and water rates and all the other rates, they will win the elections and come to drop it on people.

“If I had not raised it, do you think they would have withdrawn anything today? No, they wouldn’t.”