BY PRAISEMORE SITHOLE PENSIONERS and widows are set to get a 100% increase to their monthly stipends, as well as grocery vouchers worth $3 000 from the National Social Security Authority (Nssa), NewsDay has learnt. Nssa deputy director for marketing Tendai Mutseyekwa told NewsDay that pensioners were going to get a 100% increment this month. “They are getting 100% increment this April and we are saying we are giving them this increment and the (COVID-19) vaccines at the same time. We will also give them grocery vouchers. In May it will be widows who will be getting the $3 000 vouchers,” he said. “In June it will be the retired pensioners who will be getting these vouchers. We will use a staggered approach this year to ensure that widows and people with disabilities benefit in several ways which we have come up with to assist them.” Nssa also plans to introduce mobile clinics across the country to cater for all pensioners’ health needs. Mutseyekwa said Nssa had decided to procure COVID-19 vaccines to ensure pensioners got their jabs closer their places of residence. “These vaccines are specifically for pensioners so that they can get them closer to their homes, and we are not donating them to the government,” he said. Zimbabwe has an estimated 500 000 pensioners that are earning a paltry $1 500 a month when the poverty datum line is above $20 000. Follow Praisemore on Twitter @TPraisemore
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