RAD­HI­CA DE SIL­VA

Se­nior Mul­ti­me­dia Re­porter

rad­hi­ca­s­ookraj@guardian.co.tt

Pen­sion­ers have wel­comed the Gov­ern­ment’s de­ci­sion to in­crease the se­nior cit­i­zens grant by $250, but the Trinidad and To­ba­go As­so­ci­a­tion for Re­tired Per­sons (TTARP) is call­ing for the in­come cap to be in­creased from $5,500 to $6,000 a month so more el­der­ly peo­ple can ben­e­fit.

Speak­ing to Guardian Me­dia, TTARP pres­i­dent Reynold Coop­er said the as­so­ci­a­tion was grate­ful that the Gov­ern­ment had con­sid­ered the needs of se­nior cit­i­zens in the 2027 Bud­get.

How­ev­er, he said those whose Na­tion­al In­sur­ance Sys­tem (NIS) ben­e­fits and se­nior cit­i­zens grant al­ready to­tal $5,500 a month would not ben­e­fit from the $250 in­crease un­less the cap was ad­just­ed.

Coop­er, a re­tired per­ma­nent sec­re­tary, said the as­so­ci­a­tion had rec­om­mend­ed an in­crease in the cap dur­ing its sub­mis­sions to the Min­istry of Fi­nance.

Coop­er said the se­nior cit­i­zens grant had re­mained un­changed for about 12 years, with the last in­crease be­lieved to have been made in 2014, so get­ting the $250 in­crease was well ap­pre­ci­at­ed.

He said the in­crease in the se­nior cit­i­zens grant from $3,500 to $3,750 would ben­e­fit about 124,000 peo­ple, ac­cord­ing to the Fi­nance Min­is­ter’s an­nounce­ment.

How­ev­er, Coop­er said TTARP was rec­om­mend­ing that the cap lim­it be in­creased to at least $6,000 to re­flect the ris­ing cost of goods, ser­vices and med­ica­tion.

He said the coun­try had oth­er av­enues for gen­er­at­ing rev­enue, in­clud­ing tax­a­tion, and ex­pressed con­fi­dence that the Gov­ern­ment could ac­com­mo­date the pro­posed ad­just­ment.

De­spite con­cerns that $250 might be in­suf­fi­cient giv­en the ris­ing cost of liv­ing, Coop­er said the as­so­ci­a­tion was choos­ing to be grate­ful for the in­crease.

“What­ev­er in­crease was giv­en, TTARP is sat­is­fied with,” he said, adding that the as­so­ci­a­tion would con­tin­ue to ad­vo­cate for the cap to be raised.

Coop­er al­so wel­comed the in­crease in the an­nu­al per­son­al in­come tax al­lowance for re­tired pub­lic ser­vants from $90,000 to $102,000. The ad­just­ment rais­es the month­ly al­lowance from $7,500 to $8,500, pro­vid­ing an ad­di­tion­al $1,000 in tax-free in­come.

He said the as­so­ci­a­tion ap­pre­ci­at­ed the Gov­ern­ment’s de­ci­sion to con­sid­er the needs of re­tired pub­lic ser­vants, while re­it­er­at­ing its call for pen­sions to be tax-free.

Mean­while, pen­sion­ers said the in­crease would pro­vide some re­lief, al­though its im­pact would vary de­pend­ing on their cir­cum­stances.

Debe pen­sion­er Pooran Bas­deo said the ad­di­tion­al $250 would go a long way amid the high cost of liv­ing.

“Things are re­al­ly hard right now, so any in­crease we get we are hap­py,” he said.

Pen­sion­er Ag­nis Lewis al­so said that the $250 in­crease will help her with her med­ical bills.

“Pen­sion­ers had wait­ed for an in­crease for a long time, and we are hap­py to get an ex­tra dol­lar in our pock­ets,” she added.

Bas­deo wel­comed the Gov­ern­ment’s de­ci­sion to pro­vide more sup­port to se­nior cit­i­zens but called for an in­crease in NIS ben­e­fits as well.

Clyde Char­ter said the in­crease was wel­come but would make lit­tle dif­fer­ence to pen­sion­ers like him.

How­ev­er, he ac­knowl­edged that the ad­di­tion­al in­come would be ap­pre­ci­at­ed by el­der­ly peo­ple who de­pend­ed en­tire­ly on their pen­sions to meet their dai­ly ex­pens­es.