16,000 Jamaicans now registered under govt’s Social Pension Programme

A total of 16,000 persons are currently registered under the Government’s Social Pension Programme.

Chief Technical Director in the Ministry of Labour and Social Security, Audrey Deer-Williams, made the disclosure during the Jamaica Information Service (JIS) television programme, ‘Get the Facts’.

Launched in 2021, the Social Pension Programme targets Jamaican citizens, aged 75 and older, who are not receiving any form of pension—local or overseas—nor other retirement, disability, or regular income support, and are not residing in a government institutional care facility.

According to Deer-Williams, individuals seeking to apply for the social pension may do so by visiting any of the Ministry’s parish offices islandwide.

Applicants must complete the social pension application form and submit it along with their Tax Registration Number (TRN) and proof of age, such as a birth certificate or valid passport.

“Once they have completed that process, we then process the application. One of the challenges we found though is that, especially for social pension, there are persons in that cohort who may not have a birth certificate. They do have the national ID, but they don’t have a birth certificate, and age is critical because we need to establish that you are 75 years and older to qualify for the social pension,” Deer-Williams said.

“So we have an attestation that we use to facilitate that process, where persons who are no more than five years younger than the person can attest to the age of the applicant. So usually somebody from their community who they would have perhaps gone to school with would say, I know this person and I know my age. So based on my age, I can establish that this person has to be at least 75 years or older,” she added.

The Director expressed the hope that when the National Identification System (NIDS) is fully operational, it will simplify the application process for many Jamaicans.

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