Govt adds $3000 to Old Age Pension

Jan 27, 2022 News

Kaieteur News – The People’s Progressive Party (PPP) government has announced a $3,000 increase to the monthly Old Age Pension which will see the allocation moving from $25,000 to $28,000. This will place an additional $2.3 billion of disposable income in the hands of 65,000 old age pensioners in Guyana, who only last year had their monthly allocation increased from $20,500 to $25,000.

Senior Minister in the Office of the President, with responsibility for Finance, Dr. Ashni Singh

The announcement was made on Wednesday when the Senior Minister in the Office of the President, with responsibility for Finance, Dr. Ashni Singh presented Budget 2022.
In addition to increase for Pensioners, the Minister also noted that the Budget seeks to boost the monthly Public Assistance payment from $12,000 to $14,000, which will benefit 18,000 persons and provide an additional $432 million in disposable income to these individuals.
Further to this, Dr. Singh said “much has already been said about the public investments being made to improve the quality of the public health care system as well as to incentivise private investment in health care. Even as these investments are being advanced, this country currently has hundreds of persons undergoing ongoing treatment for life-threatening conditions”.
“A prime example is the number of persons currently receiving dialysis treatment, many of whom are young people still in the prime of their lives, but oftentimes struggling to meet the cost of their treatment. To this end, we will introduce a Dialysis Support Programme under which we will finance up to $600,000 per annum worth of dialysis treatment for each and every dialysis patient in Guyana,” he added. This programme, according to him, will provide much needed assistance to almost 300 persons at a cost of $180 million.