The lot of the Island?s seniors has not improved but has worsened since the PLP Government came into power, the Opposition United Bermuda Party charged last week.

Louise Jackson, the UBP?s spokesperson for seniors, launched a barrage of criticism at Government during Friday?s House of Assembly motion to adjourn saying that pension increases amounted to very little money after insurance deductions.

She said the situation was ?making criminals out of our seniors?.

?Seniors in need would have had a free clinic and free medication had the UBP been Government,? she said.

?At this point they are now having to search around to find money for this very flawed system ? a system that has made criminals out of our seniors.?

Mrs. Jackson explained the case of one 92 year old and her handicapped brother who lost their financial assistance because the annual rental value of their property was more than $9,900 as a result of new measures pushed through by Government.

?So we?ve gone backwards with our seniors. It?s worse now than it was before the act came through.?

She added: ?What I can?t understand is where this compassionate government is for our seniors. I?m looking around and I don?t see it.?

Mrs. Jackson told the House of one neighbourhood which had been complaining of illicit activities, including blatant drug dealing, since November last year but nothing had been done.

She questioned why the Sandys Rest Home was closed when it could have been renovated and there were volunteers ready to do the job.

And she dismissed news of imminent work starting at the new St. George?s Rest Home as ?promises, promises?.

One year on, she said, the King Edward VII Memorial Hospital ?is still not feeding our seniors and people who cannot feed themselves? and there was still just one geriatrician at the hospital.

?The hospital still does not dispense medication that is costly... so you have to bring your own medication.?

And she decried the fact that there was no government department responsible for mentally challenged adults.

?This is one of the things that happens when you have 14 or 15 people who live in abject squalor,? she said referring to the Hope Homes saga.

?Finally after the publicity they say we are going to fix it on July 26. Where were they when they were living in these conditions for months? What do you have to do to get their attention.?

Mrs. Jackson went on to say that nothing had changed for seniors and that the pensions increase had been wiped out by hospital insurance.

Finance Minister Paula Cox objected to say that there had been an ?extraordinary increase in pensions? and that another series of initiatives had been promised.

Mrs. Jackson, she said, had made a ?dishonest, false and untrue assertion that nothing had been done?.

But, Mrs. Jackson insisted: ?Seniors had been thrown into debt unnecessarily.?

Ruling party backbencher Derrick Burgess defended the Government by saying that seniors issues did not crop up after the Progressive Labour Party victory in 1998.

?The seniors didn?t get old. They started getting old 25 years ago,? Mr. Burgess said.

Low wages were to blame for low pension payouts, he added.

?When you receive meagre wages, what do you expect to get? Five percent of $25 is $5. So when you start at a low base you finish at a low base.?

He then questioned Mrs. Jackson?s contribution to the country. ?What has she done for the people of this country? Teach ballet? Yes! Teach ballet.?