News

More families want their elderly in Homes: Fatiaki

May 23, 2020 7:37 am

The Social Welfare Department is receiving applications from families wanting their elderly to move to Senior Citizen Homes.

Director Rupeni Fatiaki says this is a concern and the Department is working on setting up legislations to be able to protect our elderly in the future.

Fatiaki says families should take the initiative to protect their elderly and this is not the case.

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“One of the trends that we are seeing nowadays is that we are seeing a lot of old people being pushed out of their families. Our homes are full, there is a list of old people that are waiting for us. Their families are writing to us and saying that they want to put their old peoples in the homes, so these are the things that are happening.”

The Department currently provides Social Pension Scheme to cater to older persons aged 65 and above and 45,964 elderly people are currently part of the scheme.

They also have the Bus Fare Concession program targeting 60 years old and above which currently looks after 52,640 older persons.

There have been estimations that there will be an increase in the number of elderly by 2050.