Click to view full size

TWO and a half years after his pension cheques were fraudulently cashed at a grocery in November 2022, a 70-year-old senior citizen has received his outstanding lump-sum payment of $40,000.

In a July 2 media release, the Office of the Ombudsman said the payment followed the intervention of Ombudsman Jacqui Sampson Meiguel, whose special report on the matter was laid in Parliament on June 18.

The report outlined the complainant’s extended struggle to obtain redress and highlighted the “undue delay” by the Ministry of Social Development and Family Services (now the Ministry of the People, Social Development and Family Services) in properly addressing incidents of pension cheque fraud.