The Ministry of Social Welfare, Women and Poverty Alleviation is stressing again that the recipients of government’s Social Pension Scheme (SPS) that the normal payment under this scheme is $30 per month. The applications which were approved after the first quarter, only those recipients have received backdated payments as they were eligible.
The Ministry’s permanent secretary Dr Josefa Koroivueta said currently a total of 6784 senior citizens who are 70 years and above are benefiting from the $30 monthly Social Pension Scheme.
“The normal payment for those eligible under Social Pension Scheme is $30 per month, however there were 5523 recipients who turned 70 before January (2013) who have had their payments backdated to the month of January, thus they would have received an amount more than $30 as part of the backdated payment. However, during the process of backdating the amount, some recipients were overpaid therefore the Ministry is currently recovering this extra payout by paying 50% amount to these recipients over 4 months period. These overpaid recipients should expect a payment of $15 in the next 4 months.
“Senior Citizens who are 70 years and above can apply but there is a category, only those who are not recipients of superannuation like Fiji National Provident Fund, government pension and after care fund and are not receiving social welfare assistance through Poverty Benefit Scheme or Care and Protection Program, only these people qualify for the Social Pension Scheme,” Dr Koroivueta said.
Payout list is available with all district Social Welfare offices. For any further information on the Social Pension payout, the recipients are advised to contact their nearest social welfare offices or else call Social Welfare Headquarters on 3315585 or 3315754.
MINFO