Seniors who have an interest in a property will be eligible for financial aid from Government under a proposed change to the law.Youth, Families and Sport Minister Glenn Blakeney told a meeting last night that “amendments to certain pieces of legislation, particularly with Financial Assistance” were on the way.His announcement comes a month after The Royal Gazette revealed the plight of 98-year-old Mrs O, a widow in desperate need of 24-hour care, who was denied Financial Assistance because of a life interest in her family home.Mrs O does not own the dilapidated one-storey property but does have the right to live there until she dies. Under the Financial Assistance Regulations 2004, that precludes her from claiming anything from the Department of Financial Assistance.Government pledged in its 2011 Throne Speech to amend the regulations so home-owning seniors were no longer ineligible for aid.Mr Blakeney added last night that those aged 65 and over with an interest in a property would also be able to seek assistance from Government in the future.The Minister said Government had “noble, good intentions” to cut costs and ensure the truly needy benefited from Financial Assistance when it amended the law in 2004.But, without mentioning Mrs O, he added: “We came to find out through our experience that there were some special hardships.”He said: “Now we are making amendments so we can catch those anomalies that we didn’t really consider when we were making the adjustments.”Mr Blakeney was speaking at Dalton E Tucker Primary School in Southampton, at the first of a series of town hall meetings organised by Premier Paula Cox on the forthcoming Budget.Ms Cox was asked by Corporation of Hamilton Councillor Marshall Minors if pensions would be raised in the next fiscal year.He said many seniors were struggling and added: “Government really needs to look at increasing that pension.”The Premier said she could not say if it would go up as such a decision would be based on actuarial assessments and the amount of money available in the Budget.Ms Cox began the meeting by explaining that the idea was to gain the “people’s perspective” on how taxpayer dollars should be allocated across Government.She said members of the public had already submitted interesting suggestions as part of her “open budget” initiative.One such idea was to introduce unemployment insurance. Finance Minister Ms Cox said that had been raised before but the issue was always whether employers and employees were willing to pay more in taxes to fund such a plan.“If not, how will Government raise the additional revenue to fund the scheme?” she asked.Ms Cox said another suggestion was to look at getting value for money on government vehicles.She added that changes were on the way which would save about £1 million in that area.The Premier defended her recent decision to provide payroll tax relief to retailers and increase the import duty at the airport.“The duty was raised to 35 percent,” she said. “Many criticised the decision. Many still criticise the decision. Many feel they have the right to spend their money as they choose.”Ms Cox said every million dollars spent locally in shops supported about four jobs in the sector, while every cent spent overseas supported jobs in other countries.Attorney General Kim Wilson spoke of plans within her Ministry to establish a mental health treatment programme in 2012/13.She said such a scheme was needed as some offenders with mental health problems were not getting the help they needed.Senator Wilson said money would also be spent on the substance abuse treatment programme for offenders and on treating sexual offenders.She said some 25 percent of the Ministry of Justice’s budget would go on such programmes and that funds would also be spent on enhancing security to prevent contraband material getting into prisons.Sen Wilson said she was seeking to contain the costs of Legal Aid and introduce a system for those who couldn’t afford legal fees similar to in the US, where there is a public defenders’ office.Health Minister Zane DeSilva told the meeting that the new hospital being built to replace King Edward VII Memorial Hospital was “on budget and on time”. He said the Island’s first public private partnership was progressing well and that if the contractors did fall behind in their schedule “the dime is on them, not on Government”.* The next town hall meeting on the Budget is at 7.30pm on January 25 at the Leopard’s Club in Hamilton.