Longer wait for pension

There has been a further delay in paying the disability benefits which the Mia Mottley Administration promised it would restore to pensioners after their monies had been cut without notice.

Minister of Labour and Social Security Colin Jordan confirmed to Barbados TODAY, “There has been a slight delay and the expectation is for July month-end. I don’t have any more details.”

On June 28, president of the National Union of Public Workers (NUPW) Akanni McDowall told Barbados TODAY he had been informed by the Ministry of Labour that the payments would be made by the middle of this month.

This, after McDowall stood side-by-side with 55-year-old NUPW member Janice Harris and heard her grievance during a one-woman protest outside the head office of the National Insurance Department against non-payment of her fully reinstated benefits.

On June 1, Minister of Labour and Social Security Colin Jordan had also given the assurance the benefits would be restored in days.

Norman Blackman, a former police constable, who left the force medically unfit in 2006, said last month that with three school-aged children to support, his invalidity benefit had been reduced by nearly $1000, leaving him to survive on a $179 cost of living allowance.

Harris first staged a protest outside Parliament early last month after receiving a cheque for $47.51 for the month of April.