JAMAICA: Seniors' Pensions Hiked by 66 Per Cent

KINGSTON, Jamaica (United Press International), March 15, 2006: The Jamaican government will increase its pension rate for some 87,000 senior citizens by 66 percent beginning next month. Horace Dalley, minister of Labor and Social Security, told Parliament the increase would be effective April 3, and was "one of the largest ever increases" in pension benefits in the country's history. It will cost the country about $153 million over the next four years, Dalley said, and increase the average monthly pension from $13.75 to $23. Despite the major percentage increase, Audley Shaw, Opposition Spokesman on Finance, criticized the move, the Jamaica Gleaner reported. "It is all well and good for the minister to come and to brag and to gloat about a 66.66 percent increase, but what the minister has not told us is how much the inflation rate has raced along by," Shaw said. Last year, the island recorded inflation of 14.9 percent. Copyright 2006 United Press International