Jamaica. Dead or alive? Pension payments continue

The Accountant General’s Department (AcGD) is struggling to ascertain if some of its high-risk pensioners — aged 90 and over — are actually alive as it continues to make monthly payments to them.

Accountant General Anya Jones says efforts to verify whether these pensioners are alive have been hampered by the novel coronavirus pandemic as officers of the department are sometimes barred from entering the homes of these individuals.The department has been paying out millions to pensioners, either without verification, or despite acknowledgement of their deaths.

There are just over 1,200 active pensioners aged 90 and older on the payroll of the AcGD.

“Team members have attempted visitation and they were not allowed into the household of some of these pensioners,” Jones told the Public Accounts Committee (PAC) yesterday.

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