PRIME Minister Portia Simpson Miller says with the rise in the country’s aging population more attention must be given to planning and resource allocation, with an emphasis on creating more social and economic programmes that directly benefit the elderly.

She was speaking on Thursday at the National Council for Senior Citizens’ 30th anniversary appreciation luncheon at the Terra Nova Hotel in Kingston.

“As a government we have a responsibility to create more social and economic programmes which directly benefit our aging population. This cannot be an afterthought, it must be at the forefront of our policy planning and implementation,” Simpson Miller said.

She said, however, Jamaica had made significant strides in formulating and implementing policies and programmes to protect the elderly, particularly with the introduction of the National Policy for Senior Citizens in 1997.

The government, the prime minister added, had gone further in meeting the social and economic needs of the elderly through the social safety net reform and the National Insurance Scheme. She said that further reforms to the pension system were necessary given the fact that workers are no longer remaining in one job all their working lives.

“When they change from one job to the next, they collect their pension and spend it and by the time they reach the age of retirement they have no occupational pension benefits, or the amount is insufficient to meet their needs,” the prime minister said.

Simpson Miller said more remained to be accomplished in the areas of health, nutrition, housing, family and social welfare as well as income generation and employment. In this regard, she said that programmes including the National Health Fund, the Drug for the Elderly Programme would have to be continued and expanded in order to have a greater impact on improving the quality for seniors.

She also made reference to the $150 million grant by the National Housing Trust to provide shelter for poor senior citizens, adding that the government was committed to providing adequate shelter for the elderly. She said the $1 billion that was being made available from the NI Fund for on-lending to micro and small businesses was to provide access to social security coverage to many Jamaica who have no prospect of receiving pension benefits in their later years.

“If this is not done, thousands of persons in the informal sector will continue to become senior citizens with no social security coverage. They will therefore be confined to a life of poverty and suffering in their golden years,” the prime minister said.

Simpson Miller said, too, that the private sector had a role to play in helping to address needs of the elderly by making available services and facilities that were increasingly demanded by senior citizens. She urged private sector entities to take advantage of the new realities arising from the country’s aging population.

“Treating with our senior citizens is much more than ensuring they have the bare necessities. It is about living healthy, promoting a sense of security and belonging and, importantly, encouraging involvement in the nation’s development efforts,” she said.

She congratulated the National Council on Senior Citizens for the tremendous work the organisation has undertaken on behalf of Jamaica’s senior citizens.

Data provided by the Ministry of Labour indicates that the number of Jamaicans 60 years and over is in the region of 280,000 or 10 per cent of the population, while the over 80 years old category represents one of the fasting growing segments of the population.