Dear Claudienne

I am a pensioner who now lives in the United States. My pension benefits are administered by the Accountant General located at the Public Building West at the intersection of King and Tower Streets. Pension payments to my account were discontinued by the Accountant General in June, 2010. Since then I have remitted to the pension department required life certificates affirming that I am still alive. I sent them a life certificate on September 8, 2010, and another one was sent this month. Both were hand-delivered. However, to date pension payments to my account have not resumed.

Could you kindly contact the Pension Department on my behalf to ascertain the reason for the discontinuation of my pension benefits.

PC

Dear PC

We spoke to the Pension Unit at the Accountant General. Tell Claudienne has been advised that your payments for June to November are being prepared and will be sent to your account before the end of this month. The Pension Unit said that in a case where the complainant claims that the life certificate was hand-delivered, they would also need to know who accepted the package and signed for it. This information will help to speed up their investigations, it was explained.

Good luck.

Dear Claudienne

I live in the Highgate area of St Mary. My mother and I are the only occupants of the premises at this time as my uncle and his family who also resided here have moved to another house. For over seven years we have been getting estimated bills from the National Water Commission. They have installed new meters but they have all malfunctioned. Two years ago we got a bill for one million dollars, but that was eventually sorted out.

The bills we are now getting are increasing every month even though the usage is estimated and only me and my mother live here.

While my uncle lived at this house he went to the NWC office in Port Maria several times to have them sort out the problem. Each time they said they would send someone to investigate but never did. Eventually my uncle got fed up and stopped paying the bill.

The NWC now says we are owing $41,000, but I do not understand how we could be owing so much as I have been paying the bill. The NWC has now disconnected the water.

Could you kindly speak with them for me to see if they will agree to work out a payment plan for us. We are anxious to have this matter resolved.

DP

Dear DP

Dear DP

Tell Claudienne contacted the NWC. They said that if you paid one half of the amount that was owing, an arrangement could be made for you to pay the remainder over a determined period of time.

We see that you paid the NWC a portion of the money that was owed and that they have reconnected the water. We note that you have agreed to pay the outstanding balance by the end of January.

The NWC has also agreed to send a technician to investigate what caused the new meters that were installed to malfunction and (for the meter needle to reverse instead of moving forward).

However, the NWC said that at this time they have no new meters in stock.

Good luck.

Have a problem with a store, utility, a company? Telephone 936-9436 or write to: Tell Claudienne c/o Sunday Finance, Jamaica Observer, 40-42 1/2 Beechwood Avenue, Kingston 5; or e-mail: edwardsc@jamaicaobserver.com. Please include a contact phone number.