BY MBONO MDLULI
MBABANE – The Deputy Prime Minister’s Office (DPMO) noted with shock that there were some elderly and people with disabilities whose deaths were not reported to continue benefitting from elderly grants.
This is contained in the DPMO performance report for the financial year 2023/24. According to the report, this dishonest practice from the nation was found when the DPMO carried out a national verification exercise to find out if the elderly and people with disabilities who were paid existed.
According to the report, the exercise was carried during the 2023/24 financial year. However, the DPMO was able to clean the data of all the recipients of elderly and disability grants. Meanwhile, Government has spent E429.3 million to pay grants to the elderly citizens of this country.
This amount was spent from April 2023 to January 2024, according to the performance report of the Deputy Prime Minister’s Office (DPMO) for the financial year 2023/24. “At the end of January (2024), the total expenditure for elderly grants stood at E429.3 million,” said part of the report.
The budget increase for people with disabilities from E34 million to 48 million has accommodated over 5 000 more of them into the grant in the financial year 2023/24. There were 14 802 people with disabilities who were given grants in the 2023/24 financial year. On the other hand, the elderly people who benefitted from the elderly grant payments during the year 2023/24 were 83 123.
The DPMO also managed to successfully migrate from the three months (quarterly) payment to monthly payment. This initiative has led to a decline in the number of elderly persons paid through commercial banks. There were 14 692 elderly people who got paid through commercial banks. An amount of E86 749 950 was disbursed as payments through commercial banks.
Elderly persons who were paid through mobile money platforms were 68 431 and an amount of E342 553 987 was disbursed as payments through these platforms.
