This is the conclusion of Friday's House of Assembly debate on senior citizens.

Government has done nothing to assist senior citizens in the last year, in spite of pleas from MPs and the elderly, Shadow Minister for Seniors Louise Jackson told the House.

Speaking during the debate on the Fordham University report on Ageing in Bermuda, Mrs. Jackson said: “This Government doesn't care, I have been talking about this since last year, nothing has happened. Meanwhile this report has come out, this Fordham Survey, what are they going to do about it?

“You have seniors marching on Parliament but when they get here they are ridiculed, the Premier won't come to speak to them, they sent one minister to speak to them.

“It isn't right, I have to say I am disappointed.”

She said the rule saying those with more than $5,000 in assets could not seek financial assistance should be changed by trebling the cut-off point to $15,000.

Patricia Gordon-Pamplin (UBP) said statistics showed only two percent of younger seniors and one percent of older seniors knew about the National Office for Seniors and the Physically Challenged.

She said it was embarrassing that flyers and business cards had to be handed out to the elderly marchers on Parliament.

Letters should have been sent to every senior advising them of the office. Instead seniors were finding it difficult to even find the office in the phone book unless they thought to look under Health and Family Services.

Equally, many seniors were struggling to pay for food but didn't know the Meals on Wheels service existed. Contact should be made with every senior in Bermuda to find out what their needs were.

Instead Government was insisting on a cut-off figure of $5,000 beyond which they wouldn't help.

Suzann Roberts-Holshouser (UBP) said the average age of caregivers was 58 - not far short of the retirement age - while some caregivers were 86 years old.

Help was needed, said the St. David's MP, but she said respite care offered at Lefroy House took the seniors out of their homes - what was needed was help in the home to give carers a break.

Shadow Housing Minister Wayne Furbert chided the PLP for taking away housing allowance. His party has pledged to bring it back for seniors.

Michael Dunkley (UBP) said: “We have seniors in real need today. We can't wait to act because we are losing people. We have got enough information now (thanks to the report). Let us get this thing rolling now. “

John Barritt (UBP) said 17 percent of all younger seniors and ten percent of older seniors were renting their homes. (The report, debated in the House on Friday said that seniors aged 80-years-old were referred as older seniors and those 65- to 79-years old as younger seniors).

Mr. Barritt implored Government “to back off from the position it has taken (to raise seniors' rents). It runs counter to what we want to do for seniors”.

Mr. Barritt said that since the Bermuda Housing Trust had been “folded up with” the Bermuda Housing Corporation, they had not been able to see financial statements for the Trust.

“I challenge Minister Ashfield DeVent, who says they keep financial records, to release them. I think people should be entitled to see exactly what is going on with the Bermuda Housing Trust. We do not have to invent something new, (the BHT) was working,” he said.

Shadow Public Safety Minister Maxwell Burgess invited Government to look at the number of stressed seniors in response to the report's findings that 69 percent of younger seniors and 66 percent of older seniors were worried to some extent about their ability to manage health problems.

“If you can't live with dignity in their last years, then when can they,” he asked. “We should stop talking about seniors and start talking about grandma and grandpa.”

But Derrick Burgess (PLP) said some employers were not paying health insurance.

“The Hamiltonian hotel owe Government one million dollars,” he said. “Their people have retired and they have not seen any money.”

He suggested that Government impose a mandatory levy on the working population “to take care of seniors”, he said.

He said he was outraged to hear that an 80-year-old man had to pay $700 for an ultrasound at the doctors.

“We should not see our seniors in this position,” he said.

Community Affairs Minister Dale Butler questioned the lack of statistics about abuse against seniors in the report.

“Maybe they are shy or reluctant to talk about it,” he said.

He drew Parliament's attention to the report's summary that said: “The strength and resilience of Bermuda's seniors are reflected in their daily lives. These qualities help them adapt to and master the challenges of growing older”.

He added that his Ministry of Community Affairs and Sport honoured several seniors in Bermuda's first Sports Hall of Fame.

Neville Darrell (UBP) said caring for seniors was a global problem.

“There are more people over 65 now that at any other time in the world's history,” he said. “It's about the numbers.”

Minister Without Portfolio Walter Lister said not all seniors should be categorised as living in poverty.

“The thrust of the Opposition is that Government has to do everything. I have not heard anything from the Opposition saying it's a Government and family responsibility.”

He said Government was pouring millions of dollars into helping the island's elderly including nearly $40 million for hospital care and $4 million in financial assistance for housing, medication and food.

Turning to the controversy over increased rents at the Bermuda Housing Trust, Mr. Lister said it was in the Housing Corporation Act that rents must be market value and that losses at those properties were mounting.

He said he was not sure how they could stay in business and continue with such losses to which the Mr. Barritt said the Trust was not a business.

Mr. Lister said: “If it doesn't make money it will collapse, they just don't get it.

“It requires more services than in 1965. Where does the money come from?

“People are not coming clean about this, they don't say to me Government is going to pick up the difference on a case by case basis. There is not going to be one senior who is displaced.

“Anyone who calls us uncaring is loose up top. I am not sure what seniors came here for last week because the issue has been addressed.”

Health Minister Patrice Minors said the report tabled by the Opposition contained nothing new and she quoted from a speech by Age Concern Executive Director Claudette Fleming given at the UBP's Silver Revolution Conference which outlined all the previous reports covering the same issues which had suggested similar solutions.

She quoted a newspaper headline from 1991 saying one third of seniors were living in poverty which was similar to recent newspaper headlines saying seniors were living on the poverty line.

“These things identified by “These things identified by the report have been identified before, has anything been acted upon? No, they have not.”

Now Government was getting on with things, said Mrs. Minors.

She said Mrs. Jackson had visited the National Centre for Seniors and said it was doing an excellent job but now she seemed critical.

Over the next six months the service will be promoted to raise awareness and improve acceptance, said Mrs. Minors.

“There will be a town hall meeting for seniors next week. We want to improve acceptance between Government departments.”

Monthly seniors meetings will be set up as well as monthly radio talk show appearances.

Health promotion messages will also be boosted said Mrs. Minors through advertising, press releases and website promotions.

“We are going to bombard some 35,000 households with information about the National Seniors Office in a 24-week campaign.”

And the Minister said the island did not need three geriatricians which Mrs. Jackson had been calling for.

“We have one which is sufficient for this island. You don't need an Alzheimer's specialist. It's an incurable disease of the mind. What you really need is treatment and services to take care of them.

“One geriatrician for 6,700 seniors is sufficient.”

She said the importance of caregivers was recognised and the new St. George's Rest Home would have a respite care component to it. Lefroy House and other centres also offered this service she said.

Opposition Leader Grant Gibbons said: “The Minister said there was nothing new under the sun, that's the problem, they have been talking about doing something for seniors for the last six years and what we hear is pamphlets, conferences, talk shows and websites.”

That the National Office for Seniors was only getting two percent use was pathetic, said Dr. Gibbons, who said Government merely wanted to shoot the messenger.

Referring to the 1991 headline mentioned by Mrs. Minors, Dr. Gibbons said: “There was the headline saying one third of seniors were living in poverty.

“There's been a little bit of movement - now we have 54 percent living in poverty.”

It was wrong to say nothing came out of previous reports, said Dr. Gibbons. The national pension scheme came directly from the 1991 study after it was realised only 25 percent of the workforce would be getting a sufficient pension to retire on.

He said the concern was for those who had just retired or were about to retire because funds were not sufficient and an actuary was needed to look at the problem.

“We might have to bite the bullet and say the social insurance scheme might not be able to cover everybody.”

He said some people worked for companies where generous pension schemes made drawing social insurance unnecessary.

Dean Foggo (PLP) said: “I believe we did a bad job in getting people to prepare for their future.”

He said the Throne Speech had put forward plenty of initiatives for the elderly including seniors health issue forums, improved service island-wide wellness clinics and a health summit.

The Community Areas Programme will also help seniors who were currently too scared to come out of their homes, said Mr. Foggo, while feeder mini-bus services to the main routes will improve mobility.

Deputy Premier Ewart Brown said there was a carefully orchestrated campaign to paint the PLP as uncaring on pensioners.

He then questioned the motives behind the report and asked whether it was part of a dissertation.

Dr. Brown said he still believed the material was being used by someone to complete a dissertation and he mocked the way some of the information was put together including on page 12 where seniors were asked to describe their health.

The responses lumped in those responding “good”, “fair” and “poor” together while there were separate categories for “very good” and “excellent”.

Trevor Moniz (UBP) responded to the Government's criticisms to say that the report had “to do with the plight of seniors and the problems they are having with health care, housing and having enough to get by”.

“It's no good shooting the messenger, we're asking Government to show Bermuda that they have the political will that they can do something for the plight of seniors,” he said. “Bermuda is disappointed, we're disappointed and seniors are disappointed”.