Woman requests AG for social welfare entitlement age to be reduced to 55 years

Minister for Economy, Aiyaz Sayed-Khaiyum says at this point in time, they won’t be able to reduce the entitlement age for social welfare pension recipients to 55 years as this is something they do through consultation and also need to have the capacity to do this.

He stated this during the online budget consultation when a participant, Mehar Bano told Sayed-Khaiyum that she has been unemployed for sometime and has been told the age for social welfare entitlement is 65 years and above.

Bano requested Sayed-Khaiyum for the reduction in age for this scheme in the next budget.

Sayed-Khaiyum says Bano will be entitled to the benefit from this scheme once she reaches the age of 65 and this is based on the current policy.

He says this scheme was started by the Bainimarama government where they recognized that a lot of Fijians, particularly females who were never employed in the formal sector had no form of social security and income and when they retired or stopped working.

The Minister for Economy says social welfare recipients are now receiving $100 a month.