AS JUNE ENDS, MOST GOV’T WORKERS NOT PAID, MOTHERS AWAIT CHILD-SUPPORT, AND SENIORS UNSURE ABOUT SOCIAL SECURITY PENSIONS

While some public-sector workers are complaining that they have not been paid for the month of June, which ends today, some mothers say that child-maintenance payments are now two months outstanding.

Sources claim the Treasury has credited only the Antigua Commercial Bank and the Bank of Nova Scotia, so far, and the Ministry of Finance is “struggling” to find the funds to continue salary payments.

Another source says the Government had expected the arrival of a cruise ship today, but that “it did not show up.”  It was not clear what payments, or how much, had been expected to materialize from the vessel’s arrival.

Meanwhile, a civil servant tells our News Room that she is doubly deprived.  Her bank has not yet received salary payments from the Treasury, and the last child-support payment she received was for April, which was disbursed in May.

“Tell the Treasury the children want their money! Month on top of month!  May and June are outstanding! These people have to be sick!” the mother declares angrily. 

Meanwhile, as June closes, some Social Security pensioners say they are not sure whether they have been paid yet for May.  One woman says she “heard that they put in the money yesterday,” but could  not confirm that her May pension had, in fact, been deposited.

“Ah so arwe ah lib,” she tells REAL News.  “What a shame!”