Namibia: Ministry Apologises for Pension Payouts Delay

SOME pensioners say they are disenchanted as they have not received their pension funds that were due last week.

The Namibian has received complaints from several elderly people who say they live off the pension.

According to one of the pensioners, Josia Cellieres, many elderly people rely on the pension funds for everything.

“As an elderly person, I feel like the employees from the ministry of gender are not serious because pension funds seem like nothing to them,” he added.

Cellieres pleaded with the government to communicate to the pensioners whenever there is a delay because they are normally left out and uninformed.

“I tried to visit the social welfare offices and I was not assisted with any information,” he added.

Cellieres told The Namibian that his two friends from Swakopmund called him complaining of the same issue and that is when he realised that the problem is nationwide.

“My wife and I are not paid and that means a lot for us because that is where we make a living from,” he added.

Cellieres said he is highly disappointed in the government mainly for not communicating to the elderly.

Another frustrated elder, Teresa Blom, questioned why the ministry of gender has not issued the pension payout yet.

Another pensioner, who preferred to remain anonymous, said it has been almost a week now without their money and that is very disappointing.

“Because I was unaware of the delay, I made plans to go and collect my money and buy food for the family only to come back home disappointed,” he added.

The Ministry of Gender Equality, Poverty Eradication and Social Welfare’s executive director, Esther Lusepani, issued a statement yesterday, saying the ministry was aware of the delay in pensioners receiving their money through the banks.

“The payment was due on Thursday, 2 June 2022, but it was not honoured due to a technical error between the Ministry of Gender Equality, Poverty Eradication and Social Welfare and the Ministry of Finance,” she added.

Lusepeni said the error has since been rectified, and the payments will be done today.

“All other payment modes, such as cash payments by Epupa and NamPost have not been affected,” she added.

Source:

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *