The Barbados government says it will resume paying invalidity pensions to more than 150 people, even as it continues to deal with the “overpayment anomaly” that has cost the Treasury BDS$13.8 million, over the past 10 years.
According to Online News Source Pride News, in late July, Prime Minister, Mia Mottley, intervened in the matter, after considerable public criticism of how the matter had been handled, pointing out that while there may have been a legal justification for the abatement, a solution had to be based, more on humanitarian grounds, than acting as bureaucratic slaves to the letter of the law.
A statement from the Office of the Prime Minister said that the 190 people, whose invalidity pension cheques had been stopped for the past 15 months, would resume from this month, even as the probe continues.
Last weekend, Director of Finance and Economic Affairs (DFE), Ian Carrington, wrote the Accountant General, detailing the instructions of the Cabinet, on the approach that should be taken on a matter that has generated considerable debate and criticism, particularly during June, July and August.
Carrington said he has been assured that the process of reinstatement had started, to have all 190 persons, who had been impacted, back on to the role in time for September’s pension payments.
