Seniors are unlikely to see their pension increase before Christmas because Government will need to bring in further legislation, the Opposition said yesterday.

Last Friday, MPs passed a bill to allow the three percent rise to be introduced retroactively since August.

However, a further order needs to be approved specifying the increase - and that may not go through before the festive season, said Opposition leader Grant Gibbons.

Government was forced to bring in the retroactive legislation because the annual seniors' increase was not tabled in the House of Assembly before Parliament broke up in June for July 24 election.

The Contributory Pensions Amendment Act which MPs passed on Friday allowing the payments to be made retroactively has to be passed by Senate and signed by Governor Sir John Vereker.

Dr. Gibbons said if Government had to wait until this was signed by the Governor before bringing in the order to actually increase the money, seniors would miss on the increase this Christmas.

He told The Royal Gazette yesterday: “There is probably very little possibility that seniors will get this year's increase by Christmas.

“Historically, this stuff was brought before the House much earlier. Before the 1998 election, it was brought in May after the Budget recess.

“In August, when this started to come up again (a Government spokesman) they said it would probably not be retroactive and it wouldn't kick in until December or January.

“There was an outcry about this, with seniors saying they would lose five or six months pension increase, so now Government has sheepishly gone back to correct the problem to pay it back from August.

“But the only way they can increase these pensions is by bringing an affirmative resolution to state specifically how much the increase will be, and that is not before the House.

“Government was quite capable of bringing in an increase in payment for MPs and Parliamentarians that went through very nicely, thank you (before the election), but they couldn't bring in an increase for seniors.”

The United Bermuda Party also slammed the three percent increase because it is below the latest inflation rate - 3.8 percent in September - meaning seniors will be worse off.

Yesterday, Claudette Fleming of the seniors advocacy group Age Concern welcomed the pensions increase, but said more must be done.

“The Board of Directors of Age Concern would like to advise the public of their endorsement of the Government's decision to make the three percent increase in pension payments retroactive to the date of August 15, 2003,” she said.

“While we support the move to make retroactive payments at this juncture, we are reminded that the issue of adequate and affordable healthcare coverage and increases to the current pension benefits remain significant policy items that need to be addressed on behalf of our seniors.

“Subsequently, we look forward to further positive developments in the upcoming budget.”

Government Information Services did not respond to a call from The Royal Gazette yesterday seeking confirmation of when the pension increases will be paid out.