Old age pension as a means of poverty alleviation in Lesotho

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Date
2014
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University of Zululand
Abstract
This study seeks to investigate the impact of the old age pension in Lesotho in alleviating poverty among the elderly people and its impact to promote their well-being. Most of the elderly people depend on the social security pensions because they lack opportunities to advance themselves socially and economically. The aging process results to various physiological changes to different people such as skeletal weakness, sight problem and forgetfulness. At this age, the elderly people need more attention to be taken care of but not to take care of other people. Therefore, there is a necessity for the policies to be implemented on behalf of the elderly people. There are different challenges that are encountered by the elderly people; finance being the major problem that contribute to poverty that affect their lives. The majority of the elderly at the age of 70 years are not capable to engage in hard work which impact on them being depended on old age pension. This study focuses on the old age pension as a means of poverty alleviation in Lesotho. The study further explores the social pension scheme for the elderly, and how it strives to develop the socio-economic and demographic profiles of the elderly, with a view to providing policy-makers with information that might be useful either in the reform or expanding of the pension in order to alleviate poverty for the elderly. Another important aspect of this study is to analyse the current pension and its impact on poverty, from the perspective of the elderly. The main aim of this study was to outline whether the old age pension alleviate poverty in the lives of the elderly people, to find out whether they are able to meet their needs and the needs of the children. The study also sought to answer the question of whether the pension is enough to meet the elderly needs. The findings of this study revealed that there is a necessity for the implementers to evaluate the pension money that is given to the elderly people as it does not meet all of their needs. Therefore, it will be advisable to the government to look into introducing of policies that will swathe and guard the abusive behavioural patterns on elderly people from other people, including family members and community members. The government can assists the elderly people by providing for the needs of the orphans that they are staying with, so as to enhance the means of livelihood for the elderly people and the children. The different findings prior and during research discovered that, in Lesotho, there are no policies that protect the elderly people from financial abuse, socially and their livelihood in general and the elderly are not included in the decision making of their families, communities and the government policies.
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Submitted in partial fulfilment of the requirements of the Masters in Community Work in the department of Social Work at the University of Zululand
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