FOR 64-year-old day worker Novelette McLean, remittances from her daughter residing in the United States have been assisting her to stay afloat financially for several years.

“The money that my daughter sends helps me to buy food, pay bills and pay my ‘partna’. Before she go foreign, I used to drop half o’ hand for the partna but since she has been over there, I have been able to throw the full hand,” she explained.

McLean, who suffers from an illness, says the remittances also assist her with financing her doctor bills, purchase medication, as well as cover transportation costs.

She added that even though she doesn’t rely solely on remittances, if she wasn’t receiving them she would not have been able to cover some of her financial obligations, especially since the onset of the pandemic.

A 2011 Word Bank study showed that remittances play a significant role in the daily survival of the elderly and are used by them to meet basic necessities such as the purchase food and medication, and the payment of bills and rent.

The Jamaica Money Remitters Association, in a blog article, outlined that the Planning Institute of Jamaica has forecasted that by 2050 the number of persons over 60 will outnumber the youth population, and so remittances will play a greater role in sustaining them.

Horace Hines, general manager of JN Money Services Limited which trades as JN Money, says they understand the pivotal role remittances play in the lives of Jamaicans, especially the elderly, as wel as other Caribbean natives.

“Many of these elderly persons are persons who are now retired and may have an inadequate pension, or none at all. Therefore, these funds sent by their children or relatives on a monthly, fortnightly or weekly basis are all they have to sustain themselves,” he said.

He noted it is this understanding of the role remittances play why JN Money has sought to consistently expand and maintain its large network of locations to conveniently provide services for persons overseas who wish to send funds home.

“We have over 8,000 branch and agent locations across more than 15 countries to ensure that a wide cross section of persons have access to this very important service,” he explained. Through our website JN Money Online, persons can also send money in real time from anywhere in the world,” he noted.

Hines said there are about 800,000 remittance transactions, sent to Jamaica through various remittance companies, on a monthly basis.

Speaking at the Global Diaspora Summit in April of this year, minister of state in the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Foreign Trade, Senator Leslie Campbell said remittance inflows exceeded US$3.3 billion in 2021, an increase of over US$2.9 billion in the previous year.

The International Organization of Migration indicated that remittances have consistently contributed 15 per cent of Jamaica’s gross domestic product annually since 2015.

Hines also pointed out that JN Money has recently refurbished the JN Money branch location in Hartford, Connecticut, to better serve customers and make them more comfortable.

He noted that his company makes the collection and spending of remittances convenient by allowing customers the option to receive the money directly on a JN Money card or bank account, which card they can use to withdraw funds at automated teller machines on the Multilink network, or to make purchases by swiping in stores.