90-year-old forced to beg, experiencing difficulties over pension book replacement

Ninety-year-old John Dhanraj also called as “Uncle John”, who depended solely on his old age pension for survival is now left to beg after waiting for more than three months for a replacement of his pension book which was stolen in March.

The elderly man, who has no place to live and no money to buy food, has taken up residency in a bus shed at Anna Regina, Region Two (Pomeron-Supenaam). During his stay at the bus shed, he was attacked and robbed of a bag containing his old age pension book, ID card and other documents.
Speaking with Guyana Times from what is called home, Dhanraj explained that after he was robbed, he made a report to the police and the local office of the Social Protection Ministry at Anna Regina.
Although pleading with the staff at the Ministry to speed up the process so that he can get a replacement pension book, he is being told that the Georgetown office is dealing with the matter.
In this regard, he believes that the local office at Anna Regina is not doing enough to assist him and as such, called on the relevant authorities to look into his matter.
He believes that the elderly will from time to time misplace important documents and thinks there should be a more caring system to assist them in time of need.