The life of the elderly in Venezuela is spent in queues and with the worry of stretching out money to buy food. They say they want to die of old age and not of hunger.
Many of the older adults in Venezuela spend long hours in lines to collect their old-age pension. The worst part is that the money is barely 2 dollars a month at the current exchange rate, but being the only or one of people’s few sources of income, they have to endure the ordeal in order to eat. The problem is exacerbated depending on the bank; some have more benefits and organization, and the queues are only of a couple of hours. In others, people can wait to days to collect their money.
During the quarantine, those who have problems with their accounts cannot collect their money, because the banks remain closed. After more than two months in quarantine, the government announced flexibility measures; not all sectors were incorporated at the same time, additionally a model was established to alternate seven days in quarantine and seven days of flexibility. The system varies according to the considerations of the authorities, so citizens should be aware of the designated schedule for going out, for example, to the bank.
On flexible days, queues are observed at the banks, where people try to keep the appropriate distance and many of them wear masks. It is only on these days that older adults without a debit card can collect their accumulated pensions. But the problem did not originate with the coronavirus and the quarantine, the difficulties in receiving the pension exist for years.
The last few years have been a torture for the old people in Venezuela. On payday, the banks are overcrowded and the situation is only a little better for the rest of the month, until most of them manage to collect their retirement and old-age pension through the Venezuelan Institute of Social Security.
“They are not surviving they are dying, and, when you are in queues you see it… if this continues many will not resist, because what do they buy with 400,000 bolivars? You don’t buy anything… and you see them pale… and most of them now are alone, you hear them say that their children and grandchildren send them something from abroad, but it doesn’t reach them in time,” says Ligia Garcia, who is in her first years as a pensioner, but regularly sees many elderly people in their 70s, 80s and 90s in the queues.
The process for collecting
Since May, the payment is 400,000 bolivars, increased from 250,000 bolivars. Older people collect this in an account that is only for the pension, many don’t have debit cards or bank accounts in the same bank to transfer themselves; the solution is to transfer to a friend’s account after a process or go to the bank to get the cash.
In addition to having a fairly low pension, grandparents are forced to return to the bank several times because they are given only limited amounts per day. “The banks gave only 150,000 bolivars and another 100,000 in cash, and then, every day we come to get 50,000 or 20,000 bolivars depending on what they want to give,” says Dimas Polo.
“They don’t give us even half, they gave us 50,000 bolivars today. If the government deposits, we don’t know why they give us this misery, to get us to come here every day, which goes on the public transport ticket,” says Josefina Aular.
Belkis Mendoza says she comes from a remote area and has to take three buses to get to the bank. In order to get paid, she has to go out at dawn and sometimes wait in line for two or three days until her turn comes. “I arrived on Tuesday and got paid on Thursday… I live far away, if I leave my house at 3 in the morning, I get here at 7 in the morning and I don’t get paid at all… I go to a friend’s house to take a bath and do my personal hygiene on those days.”
Like Belkis, Miguel Laya regrets that there are so many grandparents in wheelchairs and with walking sticks waiting for their money, “the bank has us marginalized by paying us an incomplete pension and then they leave us more than half the money to give us 3,000 bolivars in bills of 100… with 3,000 bolivars you can’t even buy a candy now.”
The importance of cash
The need for cash makes pensioners come back every day to take the small quantity of money from the pension.
“Yesterday I got 20,000 and I come until I finish getting it,” says Isabel Espinoza. Some like Josefina Aular try to cheat the system by paying in cash, because that way they can save a little on purchases, “if you buy a product in cash it costs less.”
Dimas Polo stands in line for about two hours to have cash, he is lucky, because his bank is better organized, “there are other banks that you can stand all day and then you have to go home without charging anything”. He uses the cash “for the bus pass and to buy a little bit cheaper,” for example, vegetables.
Ricardo Pereira points out that “their duty is to pay the pensioners in full and not what they want… you come and they give you 20,000 bolivars and sometimes you come and there’s no money”. And that is another problem, being in line early does not guarantee that they will get paid, because cash is not enough in the country.
Belkis Mendoza wasted her journey because the bank’s office did not have low-denomination bills, “there are only 50,000 and 20,000… I have 470,000 in the account,” but the bank only gives the approved amounts. When banks do not have cash, people visit other agencies.
“We go to 5 banks and there is no network or cash,” says Ligia Garcia.
Josefina Aular mentions that she tries to stretch as much as she can the money to buy the basics, like pasta, rice or beans, “if you buy the pasta today you have to wait a few days to buy the rest… you can’t buy even a little chicken, or a leg because that’s too expensive.”
The journey and the abuse
The problem of public transport in Venezuela is also quite worrying. The few units available are not sufficient for so many users and, in addition, the pension is not enough for the elderly to pay all the time. Pedro Ampie says he tries not to spend on public transport by walking, “it’s not enough for much, just for grain and yucca.”
The bank also usually pays with bills that are not accepted in shops and on public transport because of the low denomination. The seniors mention that on a daily basis they have to discuss with the drivers to get them accepted. In the banks they can’t complain, because otherwise they don’t get the cash. “We are very mistreated. I have horrible experiences of managers who have threatened to take us to jail for demanding our rights and defending the rights of others,” comments Ligia Garcia.
When people receive the pension, they cannot choose the name of the bank it is sent to, so many times they are allocated to entities where they did not have a bank account. Some people have to find a friend to transfer, otherwise they have to tolerate the queue.
“I thought about opening an account to make transfers, but we can’t do that anymore, there are no cards, no bank books, no paper,” says Ligia Garcia.
Older people also experience discrimination with debit cards, because when the cards arrive, they are given to other customers and not to them. Pedro Ampie explains “most of us don’t have cards, the day I opened the account they only gave me the passbook and no cards.”
Each bank has a format and documents to make the transfers. “You have to explain where the money comes from and what you are going to do with it… for example, it comes from the pension and it is to buy food or medicine… I write there: two ‘Harina Pan’ (cornmeal used for arepas) because it is not enough for anything else,” jokes Ligia Garcia.
Inflation, exclusion and self-exclusion
Because of inflation, it is common for the government to increase the minimum wage and pension several times a year. However, the raise is never in line with reality. The money that is barely enough for a few basic products cannot be used for medicine, due to scarcity or high prices. As per the Convite Civil Association, many elderly people have abandoned treatments for hypertension, diabetes, among other conditions.
According to a 2019 study by Convite and HelpAge International, cash and food are among the top priorities for older people, and based on the survey, 3 out of 5 older people go to bed hungry regularly. Food insecurity is a major concern for humanitarian organizations, with 95 percent of older people admitting that they do not have access to enough food, and on average they only eat 2.37 meals a day.
As per studies conducted by the Convite Civil Association, some older adults are excluding themselves from groups where they used to socialize with people of their age. The causes are related to the loss of body weight and the shame of being seen in worse condition than they used to be.
The inadequate and poor diet not only causes older people to lose weight, but also exacerbates physical and emotional distress. “I have even fainted while waiting here… I am too old to be in this. And how can I do it? I have to come every day to search for misery… Right now, I am dizzy and I have to be in this line,” says Isabel Espinoza.
Some of the stories ended up in the queue at the bank, these odysseys are difficult for anyone and moreso for someone of a certain age. Belkis Mendoza has witnessed how death has come to her fellows “next to me Mr. Juan Velez died… and the other day a granny fell and then died in the hospital, a lady of almost 80 years.”
The Venezuelan Social Security Institute also has a debt to Venezuelan pensioners who are outside the country. In different places in the world there are people who worked for years in Venezuela, and now, they don’t get the pension.
“I arrived here in October 2015 and in December 2015 they stopped paying the pension to the Venezuelans… and since then, they have not paid a single month”. Sonia Alvarez points out that she was already a pensioner in Venezuela and made the change for Spain, but the request has not gone anywhere.
“I managed to get my papers in three months through the consulate, but they have not even signed them yet; since 2015 it is paralyzed and no one is paid.”
The non-response of the government for a population at risk
Money can be accumulated in an account, but older people do not trust that it will remain there forever. Besides, if they have difficulty obtaining smaller amounts it becomes even more complicated to obtain larger quantities.
“I have months that I don’t get paid, because every time I come there is a line that is too long… they put limits and if you let it accumulate, less they give to you,” mentions Paula Fonseca.
Nicolas Maduro’s regime has criticized the pension system of other countries in Latin America, for factors such as the number of beneficiaries or the amount of money they receive. Although the situation in many of the region’s countries is not ideal, Venezuela is among the worst countries for aging according to data from the non-governmental organization HelpAge International. The latest figures from global studies were from 2015, because of the lack of cooperation from governments, but as per the Civil Association Convite, in recent years, the situation has worsened for older adults who have no guarantees in Venezuela.
Grandparents in Venezuela live in constant risk, with problems of water, domestic gas, fuel, electricity, medicine shortage and inflation. In addition, with the migration of more than 5 million people, many elderly people are left alone when younger people leave the country in search of better opportunities. Those who migrate make sacrifices to send money, medicine or food, but help may be insufficient.
Migration has changed the family structure and, now, many grandparents take care of their grandchildren because their parents are out of the country. “A lady once told me that she arrived on foot and was in line because she had her grandson without food in the house, the daughter had not been able to send her any money… the lady could not collect at the first bank and had to go to another one… if she did not receive any money, she had to return hungry and unable to give anything to her grandson in the house,” says Ligia Garcia.
Older people can also fall into depression because of loneliness and the problems of the country, creating additional worries about finding basic products and accessing services. Seniors do not have a guarantee of a dignified old age where they have access to medicine, health care, recreation and proper nutrition.
These factors are causing many old people to die in abandonment, without access to the benefits they earned during years of work. Those who believe that the pension system makes Venezuela an example should ask themselves what they would do with less than 3 dollars a month in a country with hyperinflation.
After a long life, grandparents are forgotten by the country to which they dedicated their best days and the sadness of realizing it is written on their faces.
Image credit: Arnaud Matar