Citizens seventy years and over are receiving a fifty percent increase in the value of non-contributory pension as was promised in the 2016/2017 National Budget.
Prime Minister Roosevelt Skerrit made the announcement in the Budget address in July. That increase was received by the beneficiaries at the end of September.
Government also announced its plans to discuss with the Dominica Social Security the possibility of increasing the minimum pension paid by the DSS. It was expected that, that agreement would have been reached by January, 2017.
Government is pleased to note that the agreement has been reached with the DSS much earlier and the increase in the minimum pension also became effective this September, 2016.
A government release says those who are paid fortnightly would have already received their first payment.
The increase means that those DSS pensioners who are over the age of 70 will receive the full EC$300.00 from the institution and would not be receiving any further amount from the Government non-contributory programme.
