Mia’s plan ‘madness’, says Sinckler

WHERE will the money come from, Mia?

That’s the question posed by Democratic Labour Party candidate for St. Michael North West, Chris Sinckler, in response to several promises made by Opposition Leader Mia Mottley during her campaign’s official launch on Saturday night.

One of the promises made by Mottley was to increase non-contributory pension to $225 every two weeks starting in June.

Speaking at the DLP’s official campaign launch late last night, Sinckler described this proposal as “madness” and warned that such a move would cause the National Insurance system to collapse. “Nobody explained to Ms. Mottley, that old age non-contributory pensions are indexed, by differential, to contributory pensions. So if you increase non-contributory pensions you have to increase contributory pensions.”

He explained that the basic formula would see the minimum non-contributory pension, which is $ 155 to increase it to $225. This would mean that for 6 300 pensioners, that figure is multiplied by 52 weeks and multiplied by 70.

This, he said, would see the non-contributory moving to a whopping $ 23 million per year. “We already pay $48 million per year in non-contributory pension. That is what the Ministry of Finance sends to National Insurance Scheme. And you are going to add on another $23 million on that and then compound it, because that is a 45 per cent increase. You now have to go and increase the contributory pension because there must be a differential between the two,” he explained.

He also rubbished claims that a new fleet of garbage trucks would be brought, explaining that one truck on average costs $700 000.

“Where is she getting this money from?” Sinckler asked suggesting that larger questions must be asked about how the Barbados Labour Party campaigned is being financed, given the lavish productions such as the launch held on Weymouth on Saturday night.

Sinckler also questioned promises to pay all arrears owed to the University, remove the National Social Responsibility Levy and reduce the Value Added Tax, all in one fell swoop. (JH)