Prime Minister and Minister of Finance Gaston Browne when delivering the budget presentation.

Former government employees could receive a long awaited hike in pensions as soon as July.

Prime Minister Gaston Browne yesterday set a tentative date by which pensioners will get a 10% increase, taking their monthly minimum pay-out to 1,000 EC dollars.

“We think that we have to do our best to improve their living standards and we have decided that the minimum pension going forward, probably from about July 1st, accruing from July 1st, payable at the end of July, that it will be $1,000. We’re still awaiting the completion of the analysis to be done by the Minister of Finance. However, the Cabinet, in its wisdom, has now placed a firm timeline. We have said to the Minister of Finance that whatever you do, the pension should start to, or the $1,000 minimum should accrue from the 1st of January, sorry, July, and payable at the end of July. So, by the end of July, our pensioners should be getting the minimum of $1,000 as the minimum pension.”

Browne said public servants can also expect salary increases.

We are also going further. You know, we are committed to giving public servants routine increases. Again, it’s all part of this gain-sharing policy, in that as we grow the country’s economy, they too must benefit. So, you know, we have had periods in this country in which public servants have waited for 10, 15 years without getting a cent, right?