For many Belizean public officers, retirement doesn’t necessarily mean receiving a pension.
Attorney Richard “Dickie” Bradley says too Belize’s civil service has abandoned retirees to a bureaucratic runaround so severe that some die before their pension comes through.
Bradley stated that many public officers spend months, sometimes longer, running from office to office trying to access benefits they earned after decades of service.
“I don’t know of no human being who goes to sleep one night, and when he or she wakes up the following morning, lo and behold, they’re 55 years of age. The world no turn like that. You are 51, you are 52,” he said.
According to him, the process once looked different, with retiring officers handed their final cheque on their last working day. Today, he argues, many retirees are left to navigate government departments themselves.
“That civil service seems to have gone with the wind,” Bradley said. “You have to go to Belmopan… run up and down… to get your file… so they can compute what is your pension… It’s just absolutely disgraceful.”
“People die and no seeing pension,” Bradley said.
The post Retired at 55… But Still Waiting to Be Paid? first appeared on Greater Belize Media.
