The Ministry of Social Development and Family Services wishes to advise that it has commenced the operationalization of a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) which was recently signed with the Register General, the Attorney General and Legal Affairs to facilitate real time accessibility to information on deceased persons.
The partnership is a direct result of the Government's Vision 2030 'whole of government ' approach to the delivery of services to citizens of Trinidad and Tobago.
This initiative is good news for in excess of ninety thousand (90,000) pensioners in receipt of the Senior Citizens Pension as it signals the intent to bring about the end of their annual visit to the Ministry's offices to be re-certified via life certificate. In recognition of the challenges faced by our elderly in terms of transport, length of time, mental hardship and physical difficulty required to visit our offices, the Ministry wishes to reaffirm its commitment to the removal of the life certificate process by the end of this year.
The public should note that access to this data will allow the Ministry to manage the social services delivery process more efficiently and will allow for the elimination of over-payments through the automatic removal of deceased persons from its payroll. Indeed, the early testing of the new system has been very encouraging and pensioners will be duly informed when re certification will no longer be required.
The Ministry of Social development and Family Services remains committed to the creation of a people-centred customer service delivery system.