Michelle Loubon

Pen­sion­ers are say­ing they will not be bought with Prime Min­is­ter Patrick Man­ning's in­crease in Old Age Pen­sions–in the run-up to the May 24 elec­tion. Those who re­ceived $850 got $1,550. Those who re­ceived $1,950 got $2,550. The oth­er sum is $1850. Ran­dom checks with se­nior cit­i­zens on the Bri­an Lara Prom­e­nade, Port-of-Spain, yes­ter­day re­vealed they felt the "grant" could be re­moved at any time.

Con­sen­sus among them is it lacked a mea­sure of fi­nan­cial sta­bil­i­ty.

Look­ing on at a game of All Fours, George St John, 72, said, "I am not sup­port­ing them for that. I have been in court with the PNM for the past 29 years. They could take back their grant any­time." His friend com­plained that Bar­ba­dos did not have oil but every se­nior cit­i­zen there gets a pen­sion. "It doesn't have any­thing like if you qual­i­fy or not for pen­sion," he said.

An­oth­er gen­tle­man said while he was glad "he was not go­ing to change his mind about who he was vot­ing for." En­joy­ing her reg­u­lar Fri­day evening lime, pen­sion­er Judy Bernard said "I don't care about them. I am not tak­ing any bribe. Why they couldn't give some­thing all the time. Who they think they fool­ing!" Ray­mond Joseph, 75, from Laven­tille, said, "Man­ning cut my pen­sion by $1150. Now he give $750. I am not im­pressed.

Spout­ing ven­om, Mitchell Melanie, 71, said, "It's a grant. Waste a time!" But on the flip side, Samuel Joseph, 74, said, "Any in­crease is good." Boast­ing he emerged from the late Dr Williams era, he added, "I will die a PNM." Ef­forts to con­tact So­cial De­vel­op­ment Min­is­ter Amery Browne proved fu­tile. Re­cent­ly, Op­po­si­tion Leader Kam­la Per­sad-Bisses­sar said the UNC would in­crease Old Age pen­sion to $3,000. The PNM ad­min­is­tra­tion crit­i­cised the UNC for this ges­ture.