If the Budget were Christmas, “expect Scrooge instead of Santa Claus”, says Charles Jeffers, the deputy chairman of Age Concern.

Seniors advocates would like to see an increase in monthly pensions, but Mr Jeffers has conceded that it would take “a miracle” for this to be revealed when Finance Minister Bob Richards delivers the Budget speech tomorrow.

The organisation wrote to Mr Richards after he bluntly informed a September 2014 annual meeting of Age Concern that “money does not grow on trees” in the wake of being asked whether pensions would see any increases.

The Finance Minister’s response, Mr Jeffers said, “seemed to be one of ‘I hear you, but that’s it’ — there were no promises”.

With Financial Assistance set to be capped at $45 million, Mr Jeffers asked nonetheless that seniors be exempted from adverse effects.

Ideally, the Bermuda Government would increase its annual grant to Age Concern, he said, but if it couldn’t be raised, the organisation hopes for no decrease.

“I wouldn’t like to be in the minister’s shoes, at all,” Mr Jeffers said. “He can’t win for losing. No matter which way he goes, there are going to be those who disagree.”

Mr Jeffers suggested means-testing for pensions, so that “desperate” seniors could obtain better assistance than those who had prepared for retirement. Similar tests could be applied to other concessions, such as free bus passes for children.

“In times like these, we have to be understanding and pragmatic,” Mr Jeffers said. “The ‘p’ that we should be thinking of is not ‘party’ but ‘people’.”