Lovell says Gaston Browne has taken advantage of Social Security payments and Medical Benefits

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UPP leader Harold Lovell says Gaston Browne has taken advantage of social security payments and medical benefits.

He made the statement in response to the January 18 election date announced by Prime minister Gaston Browne last week.

Lovell said: Social Security payments – for pensioners and other beneficiaries – a crying shame.  And literally so!  Because this administration has had our elders weeping at the indignity of being without and doing without, or of begging a hand-out here and there or suffering in silence.  They do not deserve that!

Nor do the workers who, dutifully, pay in their contributions every month.  And yet they are forced to wait five, six, seven months for their benefits.  Babies already christened and looking to go to pre-school, and yet their mothers are still waiting for their maternity payments.

While you are lighting lamp to look for your benefits, Gaston Browne has failed to make regular payments on the bond. In fact the one truth that Lionel Hurst ever did tell was when he confessed that successive Labour Party governments took millions out of Social Security and did not put the money back …that deliberate act of criminal neglect is unforgivable.

And he took advantage of Medical Benefits, too.  As soon as the ALP came to office, it raided the reserves of the MBS – your money; private-sector employers’ contributions; funds held in trust!  And when the Hon. Jamale Pringle asked about it, what did Gaston Browne say: “Oh, that was a grant. We don’t have to pay it back… .”  That is how this failure, Gaston Browne, writes off the debt he owes you.   

Now, this past weekend, after all the showboating and grandstanding regarding the reopening of Jolly Beach Resort, what happened?  Staff have gone home again, while guests have had to be carted off to other properties – running from mosquitoes and complaining of no water or electricity.

Meanwhile, down at the St. John’s Harbour, we are yet to see one OASIS-class ship dock here – after eight years of dredging at only-the-good-Lord-knows what cost, since NAMCO appears to be a secret society, taking our money but giving no account for it.  And, while they want us to believe that the tourism cup is spilling over, the taxi drivers and Vendors Mall operators are telling a different story, because their saucer remains dry no matter how many ships are in Global Ports’ port.

Now, later this week, we are expecting more so-called tourists from West Africa; “tourists,” they say – but, in fact, job-seekers who are lining up for work alongside Antiguans, Barbudans, and Caribbean Brothers and Sisters. “

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23 COMMENTS

  1. Harry the Horrible, do you remember when Jacqui Quinn Leandro referred to pensioners as a “group of ragtag marchers”? Do you remember that when YOU were Finance Minister and the person responsible for Social Security, pensioners used to have to sleep under Social Security in order to get their pension? Do you remember that under your stewardship pensions were not paid for so long that persons lost track of how many weeks?

    By the way, Gaston Browne and the Labour Party have ensured that pensioners are FULLY PAID UP.

    #NextLevel!

    • @ Wash an’ Basin

      Although you hear LIARD Max Hurst who the judge condemned as untruthful in court admitting to the ABLP using Social Security money and leaving it broke and bankrupt you come on here spreading propaganda about pensioners sleeping under Social Security WHEN ABLP WERE THE ONES WHO PAID PEOPLE TO SLEEP THERE- AGAIN ASK MAX LIARD HURST AND BIG FOOT TANNY ROSE!
      You wicked ABLP- GET RID A DEM

    • Wow! It is almost impossible to belief that someone is so blind they cannot see beyond their nose. UPP is offering benefits and relief for everyone and a better Antigua & Barbuda. This person does not think about the benefit to their own family members , neighbors, friends, their country! It’s all about attacking the only man who has stood up to secure a better future for our nation. Gaston has run Antigua and Barbuda into a stinking, run down and worse than most 3rd world countries. You have the Gaul to think all is well. Please, get some pride and dignity about yourself. Mr. Lovell can teach you loads.

  2. Weeping and gnashing of teeth if labour get back in power , citizens don’t suffer with labour, make a change. Gaston believe he is higher and mightier than the almighty, what would happen if. Well there is no if let’s get the man with that devilish spirit get back in . Vote them out

  3. Weeping and gnashing of teeth if labour get back in power , citizens don’t suffer with labour, make a change. Gaston believe he is higher and mightier than the almighty, what would happen if. Well there is no if let’s not get the man with that devilish spirit get back in . Vote them out!

  4. hmm like Grumpy expects to and plans to spread negativity on Christmas. Merry Christmas all, including former MP Harold Lovell. 2023 and onwards will provide you plenty opportunities for rest, if you can handle the many regrets and rejections.

  5. @ Tenman. I have been waiting on my social security since March. Can you tell me when I will get it? I am still waiting, so does that I will be described the way you do here? I just need to know if I should smile and nod this Christmas, if I should play politics with what is rightly mine? Should I demean the people I think are responsible for the non-payment? Can I ask you to pay me? Let me know, because you seem to have a plaster for every sore.

    • Please reply with your your details (just name and address) and I will work on ensuring you get what’s yours. Its strange though because the head of social security (Mathias) has reported to the government and media, than they are now no arrears? Were you getting SS payments before march?

    • Moneyless & hopeless festive season -Please reply with your your details (just name and address) and I will work on ensuring you get what’s yours. Its strange though because the head of social security (Mathias) has reported to the government and media, than they are now no arrears? Were you getting SS payments before march?

    • Just go check town – money-like peas in town today and tonight – it’s spending like the old days – Gaston deserve 5 more years
      Real Christmas-eve Night cone back again

      • Isaiah 5:20
        Woe (judgment is coming) to those who call evil good, and good evil; Who substitute darkness for light and light for darkness; Who substitute bitter for sweet and sweet for bitter!

        1 Timothy 6:10
        For the love of money [that is, the greedy desire for it and the willingness to gain it unethically] is a root of all sorts of evil, and some by longing for it have wandered away from the faith and pierced themselves [through and through] with many sorrows.

        Ecclesiastes 5:10
        The Folly of Riches
        He who loves money will not be satisfied with money, nor he who loves abundance with its

  6. @ Tenman. Seeing that you have a plaster for every sore, answer me this. What should I do this Christmas as I wait for my social security payments? Seeing that you ridicule anyone who addresses any pertinent topic, can I ask you to pay mine?

    • @Hopeless Please do the same as I asked Moneyless & hopeless to do unless you guys are the same. If the info you are providing is false, Lovell has a tree that you and him can go and swing from

      • @ Watching them fools

        ASK MAX LIARD HURST ”per the judge”……….Social Security doing window dressing only because it’s election!!! 🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣

  7. Citizens of Antigua we have failed you, we could not deliver give us another chance so you could suffer with labour

    • @(fake)Gaston

      1.University A&B delivered
      2. Fibre to the home roll out to all areas
      3. Economic growth averaging 5% yearly except for 2020 the height of covid
      4. Moved water production (sea) from 3.3 million gallons a day to now 7 million a day (note UPP met it at 3 million a day and in ten years increased it by only 300K a day)
      5. Expanded secondary schools
      6. Record breaking tourism stay over numbers (we now over 300K yearly)
      7.Kidney transplants now being done at Sir LB hospital
      8. Most hospital beds per capita than any CARICOM country
      9. Before Covid, this admin took our debt to gdp from 104 percent it met to 70 percent
      10. Paid off the principal on the HMB bay debt (Upp paid nada) and fully paid off the IMF 300 million debt (Harold Lovell said he was too busy campaigning to ensure the scheduled payments were met)

      • Lord, please open this person’s eyes, heart and mind to the lies they perpetuate as truth!!! Please return to them the ability to discern promises from reality and ability to recognize the daily of the GB administration. Place on them the weight of the realization the up till now Granny caarn bathe and pensioners can’t get paid along with all GB has not done. Thank you Father in Jesus name. Amen 🙏🏽

      • Tenman while you are at it, tell us about the 29 failed projects. Tell us about YIDA & the so called WISES special economic zone.
        Tell us about the over 100 loans this cabol has borrowed including the PLH 12M.

        Tell us about all the project’s according to chock Weston that antigua lost to other islands and finaly,tell us why whenever they bless the citizens & residents with little water it resembles urine?

  8. @ tenman

    1. More pot holes than roads in Antigua
    2. Suppliers owed millions of dollars that the government cannot pay.
    3. More workers striking than under any previous administration.
    4. Unpaid overtime for Bendals Quarry, ClareVue, CBH, Port Authority etc
    5. The unhealthy condition of the environment for lack of rubbish clearance
    6. The establishment of Saint Mary’s Secondary was undertaken by UPP
    7. The repayment of the IMF loan was done with funds left in MBS by UPP
    8. Now ABLP has ‘dried up’ MBS such that there is no money for ‘Overseas treatment’
    9. Including MBS paying rent to GRANSTON for his apartments even when empty.
    10. The over 100 loans borrowed to leave an eternal debt on future generations, fulfilling a
    promise made by your LEADER GB to ‘borrow Antigua out of deb’.
    11. HMB debt was started by the Lester Bird administration, the UPP simply carried on the
    process.
    12. The self-enrichment of ministers.
    13. Water production increased to enable sales to individuals through businesses fronted for
    ministers.
    14. Finally, NO DEBT EXISTED PRIOR TO THE UPP GAINING POWER IN 2004, they just
    ‘appeared’, not because of the rampant corruption of the previous administration
    including the IHI loan which is well documented in the Lindquist report and for which
    Rappaport repaid a portion and of which GASTON BROWN was a minister, if you want
    more please ask.

    • @audacity
      1. Seem your memory bad. Check the courts decision and you would see (based on when the interest stated collecting) that acquisition happened under the UPP admin (July 9th 2007). You may remember the former owner mentioning the many promises UPP made her before they were elected

      2. UPP argued the school plants could not be expanded (see story done by Profiles), ABLP in coming into office not only added a new school but did what UPP said could not be done.

      You do know much of the other stuff you wrote is rum shop talk (eg over 100 loans etc), the budget estimates clearly show you are simply allowing rum to control your words . Early in the ABLP term some 30 million was used to get diagnostic equipment for our hospital. Is this not an expense the MBS should meet? ABLP have clearly earned more than even 5 more years.. Season greetings to you and yours

  9. I am only concerned in enriching myself. I have fooled many but will like to fool all, I worked at Swiss American bank but my inability to manage has caused the bank to close. Who am I?

    I don’t want the UPP to get into power because they might used the court system to attack me with my corrupt practices I used to accumulate wealth.

    Thanks to the social programs of the UPP alot of money is raised for our self enrichment schemes.

  10. As the world moves forward from COVID and a global pandemic, Antigua should move on with a new face/regime, because this current regime has clearly failed the people in it’s most vulnerable years, and when help was most needed.

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