Poor pensions pay out irks senator

Poor pensions given to the pensioners have irked  senators who questioned the understanding of government who expected them beneficiaries to travel from different parts of the country into towns to collect such paltry amounts.

Some pensioners are reportedly getting $20 per months.

Lilian Timveos said pensioners were staying for more than a week waiting for their pensions.

"What policy have you put in place, so that they can actually just go and collect their money without waiting for long?  I am from Zvishavane, we have pensioners who come from Mberengwa, they stay in Zvishavane for a week.  It is US$5 to and from Zvishavane and they only get about US$20," she said.

Public Service, Labour and Social services minister Priccillah Mupfumira said they are all aware at the moment of the liquidity challenges facing the country.

"Treasury has a challenge almost every month, trying to meet the requirements including payment to our pensioners.  Under normal circumstances, the Ministry of Finance and Economic Development would inform the Public Service Commission and the Ministry, if there are any changes to the payment for wages and salaries," she said.

"If we are informed, we would pass on the information to our pensioners.  I have noticed with concern that there have been incidences where the pay dates have been changed at the last moment without adequate time for us to inform our pensioners.   It is regrettable, however, we are taking some action to advise and inform the Ministry of Finance and Economic Development to ensure that any changes must be communicated well in time so that the pensioners do not waste their money coming and having to wait for long."

She said it has happened and it is something which we will actively pursue with the relevant Minister, otherwise we would have our normal dates but because of the challenges that we are facing it happens sometimes we cannot pay on the due dates.

But Timveos said since these pensioners are coming for something like US$20, can the Minister look into this, is it really worthy for our pensioners to leave their homes just for that little money.

"Should it not be noble for the Minister to review this and make it worth travelling for and wait for so long?" she said.

Mupfumira said the Ministry and the Public Service Commission is seized with that issue and was looking at other ways of payment, including using cellphone service providers.

"We are in the process of getting bio-metric data so that we confirm the people who are really living and surviving and we want to come up with a situation where people would be able to use even plastic money in their areas they live instead of travelling to get that payment," she said.