{"id":5710,"date":"2021-11-11T10:04:40","date_gmt":"2021-11-11T10:04:40","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/lesotho\/all-news\/old-age-pensions-under-scrutiny"},"modified":"2021-11-11T12:15:53","modified_gmt":"2021-11-11T12:15:53","slug":"old-age-pensions-under-scrutiny","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/lesotho\/all-news\/old-age-pensions-under-scrutiny","title":{"rendered":"Old age pensions under scrutiny"},"content":{"rendered":"

Africa-Press – Lesotho. <\/strong><\/span>Following the reports of alleged misrepresentation and \u2018ghost\u2019 recipients of the old age pension scheme, the Finance Minister Hon. Thabo Sophonea said the<\/p>\n

auditors have begun gathering data of the active pensioners and those that have passed on. This exercise he said will counter the alleged fraud. Sophonea said such report is<\/p>\n

receiving attention at the Pensions Department. This he said the Ministry is doing in concert with the Ministry of Home Affairs which houses the information on population registry.<\/p>\n

The Minister said this on Thursday while responding to the questions in the National Assembly posed by Hon. \u2018Maletsema Lenkoane Letsoepa, the Proportional<\/p>\n

Representative (PR) member of the Democratic Congress (DC). Letsoepa asked the Minister about the alleged fraud at the old age pension scheme in which the names of pensioners who are certified dead still appear in the list of<\/p>\n

the active recipients of the pension. She further enquired on how soon will the pension register be \u201ccleaned up as the money is being looted\u201d by the Ministry staff and the disciplinary measures<\/p>\n

engaged to arrest such practice against the perpetrators. Lesotho introduced the old age pension in 2004 and the citizens who are 70 years and above are entitled to receive it on monthly<\/p>\n

basis. The Ministry of Finance said there are about 3 045 certified dead pensioners who had been on the monthly roll. According to the International Labour Organisation (ILO), \u201cLesotho\u2019s share of elderly people is<\/p>\n

larger than in other sub-Saharan African countries. This can mainly be attributed to outmigration of young people and decreased longevity due to HIV\/AIDS.<\/p>\n

The HIV\/AIDS prevalence rate is 23.4 per cent and has significantly reshaped the country\u2019s demographics. Life expectancy is only 48 years and an estimated 360,000 children have lost either one or both parents to the HIV<\/p>\n

epidemic. Often, older Basotho become the primary caretakers of their grandchildren. In rural areas, 8 per cent of households are skip-generation households.<\/p>\n

\u201d The Minister said \u201cdeep\u201d investigations are needed to identify the alleged perpetrators to be brought<\/p>\n

before the courts for the law to take its course. He said the pension staff delay to report once they have received the reports of the deceased pensioners and delay to delist them from the roll.<\/p>\n

For More News And Analysis About Lesotho<\/a> Follow Africa-Press<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Africa-Press – Lesotho. Following the reports of alleged misrepresentation and \u2018ghost\u2019 recipients of the old age pension scheme, the Finance Minister Hon. Thabo Sophonea said the auditors have begun gathering data of the active pensioners and those that have passed on. This exercise he said will counter the alleged fraud. Sophonea said such report is […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":84,"featured_media":5709,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2,3,8,16],"tags":[233,246,245,1122,1121],"class_list":["post-5710","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-all-news","category-community","category-homepage-english","category-twitter","tag-africa-press","tag-africa-press-lesotho","tag-lesotho","tag-pensions","tag-scrutiny"],"yoast_head":"\nOld age pensions under scrutiny - Lesotho<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Following the reports of alleged misrepresentation and \u2018ghost\u2019 recipients of the old age pension scheme, the Finance Min ...\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/lesotho\/all-news\/old-age-pensions-under-scrutiny\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Old age pensions under scrutiny\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Following the reports of alleged misrepresentation and \u2018ghost\u2019 recipients of the old age pension scheme, the Finance Min ...\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/lesotho\/all-news\/old-age-pensions-under-scrutiny\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Lesotho\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:publisher\" content=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/AfricaPressTunisiaa\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2021-11-11T10:04:40+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2021-11-11T12:15:53+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/static.africa-press.net\/lesotho\/sites\/62\/2021\/11\/img-618d0953791f6.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"720\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"540\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"cfeditoren\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"cfeditoren\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"2 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/lesotho\/all-news\/old-age-pensions-under-scrutiny#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/lesotho\/all-news\/old-age-pensions-under-scrutiny\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"cfeditoren\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/lesotho\/#\/schema\/person\/068c7ab4e9634ae78ec5d54ec46598bb\"},\"headline\":\"Old age pensions under scrutiny\",\"datePublished\":\"2021-11-11T10:04:40+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2021-11-11T12:15:53+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/lesotho\/all-news\/old-age-pensions-under-scrutiny\"},\"wordCount\":385,\"commentCount\":0,\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/lesotho\/all-news\/old-age-pensions-under-scrutiny#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/static.africa-press.net\/lesotho\/sites\/62\/2021\/11\/img-618d0953791f6.jpg\",\"keywords\":[\"Africa Press\",\"Africa Press-Lesotho\",\"Lesotho\",\"pensions\",\"scrutiny\"],\"articleSection\":[\"all news\",\"community\",\"homepage-english\",\"twitter\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"CommentAction\",\"name\":\"Comment\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/lesotho\/all-news\/old-age-pensions-under-scrutiny#respond\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/lesotho\/all-news\/old-age-pensions-under-scrutiny\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/lesotho\/all-news\/old-age-pensions-under-scrutiny\",\"name\":\"Old age pensions under scrutiny - 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