Trinidad and Tobago pensioners to use biometric cards to access benefits

 Senior citizens in Trindad and Tobago will soon be able to use fingerprint-based biometric smart cards  to access their pension payments.

The news was announced as part of a launch of the country’s “Direct Deposit” initiative by the Ministry of the People and Social Development.

At the launch, Minister of the People and Social Development, Dr Glenn Ramadharsingh, noted that he had been informed of several reports where elderly individuals had been robbed of their pensions, as well as instances where their cheques were lost in the mail.

Ramadharsingh noted that the direct deposit system took approximately 18 months to get off the ground. The system allows senior citizens direct access to their pension funds as the money would be deposited directly to their bank accounts.

The biometric card system would allow senior citizens access to all their social benefits which would significantly reduce incidents of fraud, as well as provide a more secure system for the socially vulnerable.

Ramadharsingh noted that the biometric card system, which is currently before the Tenders Board, should come on stream by May this year, and will also allow monitoring of trends and the shopping styles of senior citizens.

Each card would contain selected fingerprints from its owner.  PlanetBiometrics