Treat pensioners with respect, care they deserve – Jagdeo to Human Services Ministry staff

In a bid to improve the delivery of public services, Vice President, Dr Bharrat Jagdeo has called for greater empathy and efficiency from officers tasked with distributing old age pension books.
During his weekly press conference on Thursday, the Vice President expressed frustration with reports of pensioners facing unnecessary challenges during the process.
“I can’t imagine why this can’t be done through a system,” the Vice President remarked. “They have made some serious changes to get the books to the pensioners faster and in a more convenient way. I know what those changes are, and I’ve seen a major improvement from what it was under APNU (A Partnership for National Unity) but clearly, we still have too many cases where people have difficulties, and a lot of it is the people we have,” he added.

The comments follow widespread complaints from pensioners about long waiting times, sudden office closures, and officers showing little regard for the elderly’s time and effort.
Back in December, the Human Services and Social Security Ministry announced that the distribution of the 2025 Old Age Pension Books will begin in select regions, including Regions One, Seven, Eight, Nine and 10.
Meanwhile, Regions Two, Three, Four, Five, and Six, which have larger pensioner populations will follow later as books are still being printed.
To ensure efficiency, the Ministry has implemented several measures. Pensioners must collect books at designated venues within their regions, with schedules published weekly. The Ministry also urged pensioners to avoid arriving early in the morning, assuring them that all will be served throughout the day.
Additionally, shut-in pensioners—those unable to travel—will receive their books at home. Families are encouraged to register shut-in cases via the Ministry’s offices or on-site at distribution venues.
Despite these efforts, the Vice President emphasised that the attitude of some officers undermines the system. “We’ve hired people to serve, they don’t operate with their heart. They (officers) would just have a hundred pensioners waiting here in an office and they’ll just shut the door and go off work for the half day and just leave the people here and come out, and say, come back another day. And they’ll (pensioners) travel here, use their money, their time, their energy at the end of the day,” he said.
He further criticised the tendency of some officers to prioritise personal matters over their responsibilities, stating, “some of them just love the confusion. They sit there, people outside, they keep them waiting. They’re supposed to start at 8:30, they start at 11, sitting in their offices, making calls, doing all sorts of things. People have to start performing public services in a certain manner. There’s a desire, they should have empathy for the people who are using the service”.
With 73,000 pensioners to serve nationwide, the Human Services and Social Security Ministry had pledged to make the process as seamless as possible. However numerous complaints have been made by pensioners about the systems in place for them to uplift their pension books and the manner in which they are treated when they have to interface with officers from the Ministry. The Vice President, however, stressed that systemic changes alone are insufficient without a cultural shift in how public servants approach their duties.
“Empathy should be at the core of public service,” he added, urging officials to treat pensioners with the respect and care they deserve.
Calls to Human Services Minister Dr Vindya Persaud on Thursday regarding complaints from pensioners and some shut-in pensioners not being able to receive their pension books until the end of this month, went unanswered.