'SAGE beneficiaries are free to relocate their payment location to another'
SAGE beneficiaries are free to relocate their payment location to another
Namugongo Division’s Community Development Officer, Margret Nazziwa who also doubles as the Focal person in charge of the Elderly and People with Disabilities in Kira Municipality has restored hope to the beneficiaries of SAGE program meant for the elderly persons aged 80 years and above after informing them of the possibility of changing the localities from where they can get their money from even if it’s not their original areas of registration. This revelation has been made at St. Stephens Church Kireka where many SAGE beneficiaries in Namugongo Division had gathered to receive their periodical payments for the period of July.
Many of the senior citizens informed Nazziwa of how they had many colleagues who were registered in their rural areas and currently residing in other areas with their relatives who are taking care of them in different areas. Nazziwa informed them that the key issue is someone being registered with National Identification Registration Authority (NIRA) and having reached the mandatory age of 80 year.
“Our responsibility at local levels is to register all the senior citizens at the age of 80 years and the Local Council Chairperson has to endorse and stamp on that form which we send to the Ministry of Gender which also verifies with the data from NIRA. If at all you had got registered and everything got verified and account got opened for you be assured that your money is there on your account and, if you want to change the location from where you get your money from you just have to come and fill the transfer form, endorsed by your local leader with a stamp and start receiving your payment from the new location. From the day your accounts got opened money has been deposited and if you had not authorized any one to be withdrawing it for you be assured that all of it is there and you will be in position to get it all from the new location where you will have decided to relocate to ” she guided.
Nazziwa said that some senior citizens are experiencing challenges such as lack of correct data about their dates of birth limiting many of them from benefiting from the program.
“We have seen cases where during the registration for the national identification someone could not tell their correct dates of birth and ended up registering with under age. Take a scenario where a visibly an old person is registered to be 70 years or less but his/her own child is correctly registered as 80years. In such case the child will benefit from the program but the parents will not and as CDO’s office we have no right to change anything regarding that. Others have made some changes in their names in that whence called to get their payments they come with IDs which are having different details from those which were captured before. Such people cannot also get paid due to the differences in details unless when they come with court or NIRA documents authorizing and confirming those changes so that their details in this register can be edited to match the new ones ” she said.
She urged the care takers of the elderly persons to take them for the National ID renewal exercise which is currently going on saying that in case they are left out they may find themselves cut off of many services and benefits that requires National ID.
On the question of why such aged people some already disabled have to move distances in order to get paid Nazziwa said that some time back the banks used to deliver the money to the beneficiaries’ homes but it was found insecure on the side of the bankers who were moving with bulky cash. She adds that there is a provision for beneficiaries to access their payments from their bank accounts and or registering helpers who can get for them their payments without them necessarily moving.
“It may look hectic for our grandparents to move long distance but at the same time that movement is beneficial to many. Many of these aged people do not move yet whence they come together like today they get a chance to meet and interact with their old friends whom they may have taken long without meeting. Even when it’s not going out for any official event, let it be a routine to take out our grandparents for a walk for their health to save them from diseases resulting from body idleness” she urged.
The Central Government through the Ministry of Gender, Labour and Social Development came up with Senior Assistance Grant for Empowerment (SAGE) program where every senior citizen at the age of 80years above gets 25000/ monthly. The program is directly managed by the Ministry and payments are periodically effected as funds may be availed..
Kira SAGE payment and verification shcedule for july 2025 started on 25th July at the Municipal Headquarters and having covered 109 beneficiaries in Namugongo Division today, the team is expected to continue tomorrow in Bweyogerere Church of Uganda from 9:00am to 11:00am, St. Thomas Bazadde Catholic Church from 11:30am to 1:30pm and thereafter in the afternoon at 2:00pm to 4:00pm at Namataba Catholic Church.