At least four Pe­tit Val­ley pen­sion­ers are with­out mon­ey, their pen­sion cheques hav­ing van­ished in the mail. At Hill­crest and Field­scape Dri­ves cheques have been dis­ap­pear­ing. Among those who did not re­ceive their cheques are Phyl­lis Lee and sev­er­al of her neigh­bours who have been wait­ing on last month's mon­ey. Fran­cis De­venne, whose par­ents are ill and need con­stant care, has re­port­ed the mat­ter to the po­lice.

De­venne said the po­lice told her it would take six months to get new cheques. Both Lee and De­venne's plight was high­light­ed in last night's CNC3 News. They were told by TTpost that the cheques had been de­liv­ered.

But one TTpost work­er told Lee about a cheque cash­ing scheme that makes pen­sion­ers easy prey. Busi­ness­men cash the cheques for pen­sion­ers and then de­posit them in­to their own ac­count. It is a ser­vice they of­fer to make life easy for se­nior cit­i­zens, but it can al­so be mis­used. Di­rec­tor of So­cial Wel­fare Vi­jay Gan­ga-Per­sad has promised to fol­low up on the sit­u­a­tion.