This Friday’s Private Notice Question focused on the pension granted to people with disabilities. It was addressed to the Minister of Social Security, Fazila Jeewa-Daureeawoo. The Leader of the Opposition alleged that there are many cases of fraud and asked what actions have been taken. To which, the minister replied that there have been 5 arrests and 53 people have had their benefits revoked.
Fazila Jeewa-Daureeawoo added that the ICAC and the Police have investigated 121 cases of fraud. Of these, 82 were reviewed by her department and in 53 cases, the disability pension was revoked. This answer did not convince Xavier-Luc Duval, who spoke of over a thousand of cases. He asked that the whole system of granting disability pensions be reviewed. He even stated that there are cases where people have obtained the pension while there was not even a seal on the medical certificate they produced to the Medical Board. It should be noted that the session was interrupted several times due to the exchanges between the Minister and the Leader of the Opposition.
