A pensioner who invested in government bonds, Balbir Allan, says she has resorted to medication due to panic attacks from the fear of losing her investment.
According to her, she and her husband invested thousands of cedis of their pension monies accrued from several years of labour in the United Kingdom.
“Sometimes I don’t sleep at night. I have to take Diazepam for panic attacks because, you know, the children’s school fees are due, and lunch money is due. Who’s going to pay for that?
“Even the staff that I have employed in my house to look after these old people and children, how do I pay them? I owe my housekeeper over Gh¢45,000 for looking after the home for me and feeding the children. How do I pay her?”the frustrated pensioner quizzed.
Speaking with JoyNews on day two of the picketing by bondholders at the Finance Ministry on Tuesday, she explained that her family had lost the initial investment during the banking sector collapse, and therefore advised her husband to invest in government bonds as they were the safest, only for the funds to be locked up.
The pensioner added that she was forced to travel from Angloga in the Volta Region to join the picketing because life has become unbearable forcing her to shirk responsibilities.
“I sold a family property. I feed several old women. I pay school fees for several young children. They are not yet of the age where they can attend secondary school so they can’t have free SHS. Some of the old people we look after are sick. They need medication. We cannot afford their medication now.
“What are we supposed to do? Who do we go to? The only way we survive now is on my husband’s pension. He’s an old man and we live off his pension. We can’t pay school fees. We’ve started pushing some of the young children we look after aside,” she added.
Although her coupon will mature in July this year, she believes it was time to join the picketing to put pressure on the government to release the money before her coupon matures.
When asked to speak directly to the finance minister, she said “Give me my money. Whether I go and farm or I want to put it in the gutter, it’s my business. Give me my money. I want to use it to feed my children and pay my school fees.
“It’s not yours, it’s mine. I went to England, I worked hard, I came, and I sold my property. You didn’t help me with any of that. Where were you then? How’d you take my money today? It’s a loan I gave you. Give me back my money.
“It’s mine. I love it. I love my money very, very much. I’m very attached to it. It has a lot of things for me. It has a lot of things for children. I have charities that I pay into for children,” she said.
The Pensioner Bondholders Forum last week advised the government to seek funding from the Treasury bills market to settle their matured investments.
Government promised to pay the bondholders who were exempted from the Domestic Debt Exchange Programme (DDEP), but the Finance Ministry failed to make the settlement.