Minister of Social Development and Family Services Donna Cox, has revealed that over 200 suspected cases of grant fraud have been sent to the Trinidad and Tobago Police Service (TTPS).
Speaking with reporters after the ribbon-cutting ceremony for the new Port of Spain Social Services Centre on Henry Street in Port of Spain, Minister Cox said while the ministry has started an exercise to cut down on fraudulent practices in which people were either receiving more than one grant, or receiving a grant under false circumstances, it was an issue that was “not so easy to weed out”.
She said more than 108,000 people receive the senior citizens grant from the ministry and emphasised that contrary to common belief, the senior citizens’ pension was not an entitlement but “a pension for people who are poor and in need of help”.
She added, “I’ve met a lot of persons who ask about the pension, but I know them, and I know that they are not poor; but I think some people feel that when they reach 65 years, they are entitled.”
According to the minister, “There are persons who are in receipt of NIS (National Insurance) pension, and according to the amount that you are getting, you are not eligible. There are persons who are receiving Social Security from abroad; there are persons who have places rented out and earning a proper income above the means test level; and yet they would all apply. And I think sometimes they don’t know.”
However, she said there were cases where “some of them will apply because…they may know some people who are not poor and (who) are on the pension, who might have slipped through the system”.
She said the ministry’s main aim was “to make sure those who need the grant, get it”.