Mobile life certificate drive makes it convenient for pensioners

The Accountant General’s Department (AGD) Mobile Life Certificate Drive is making it easier and more convenient for pensioners to submit their certificates.

The certificate, to be submitted once every three months, must be stamped and signed by a justice of the peace (JP), notary public, minister of religion, medical practitioner, school principal, bank manager, or parish councilor.

Director of Corporate Communications and Public Relations at the AGD, David King, said that the initiative was conceived to address the challenges some pensioners outside of the Corporate Area were having with submitting their certificates.

“Persons who were in rural Jamaica, some parts of St Thomas, western Hanover, for example, were having difficulty submitting these documents as well as when they sent them by the post office, sometimes they came after the deadline. So, in trying to address that particular challenge, we decided to do what we call the Mobile Life Certificate Drive where we go around the island, specifically to about 11 parishes, and are there in person to process those documents. A person could just come to us at a central location, get the documents printed, stamped, signed, and submitted all in one day,” King explained.

Pensioners only need a valid form of government issued identification to get assistance during mobile drives.

Pensioners who do not submit their life certificates over a period of time run the risk of being suspended and having their payments halted.

“What we recognise with the Mobile Life Certificate Drive [is that] we’ve seen our suspension number go down significantly. A few years back, we had a very high number of suspended pension accounts. That was another reason why we thought we had to go out into the field to essentially ensure we reduce that number. On average, we see about  4,000 pensioners per quarter across 11 parishes,” he added.

King is urging pensioners to submit the life certificates for the current period ahead of the April 30 deadline.

“If you have not yet done it, you can contact us via our email, info@Treasury.gov.jm. You can contact us on our social media @theaccountantgenja, and our live chat platform via our website, www.treasury.gov.jm,” he said.