With monthly expenses three times their income, Tommy Aitchison, 88, and his wife Lois, 87, are moving out of Bermuda.

The couple will head to the United States where their two sons live with their families and plan to spend the rest of their years in San Diego.

?It?s a matter of economics,? Mr. Aitchison (pictured) said. ?We simply no longer can afford to live here.? He agreed to tell his story after ruling party MP George Scott suggested that Government provide information on retirement communities abroad because foreign living could be considered a viable alternative to Bermuda?s high costs.

Mr. Scott later clarified his stance and said it was unacceptable that people should feel forced to leave the Island for economic reasons, but said he was not aware of such situations.

The MP also publicly urged seniors planning to leave under economic duress to contact him and he will do all he can to help.

?Mr. Scott appears only to consider the logistics of moving, as though all we have to do is jump up and go,? Mr. Aitchison said.

?He makes no mention of the emotional trauma involved in having to leave family and friends of a lifetime, with the very real prospect of never seeing them again. When he realised the furore he created, Mr. Scott, a newcomer to the House ... immediately said it was not his intention to have us all ship out, but merely for the Government to assist with information about where to go and how to get there. Any travel agent can do that.?

Mr. Aitchison went on to say that mentioning Brazil and Costa Rica as possible retirement destinations was ?naive and bizarre?.

?To suggest that seniors move to places where they are unlikely to know the language and make new lives for themselves at their ages is unthinkable.?

Mr. Aitchison called on Government to ?create new laws which will bring relief to seniors? and said that far too much public spending was of ?doubtful validity?.

Government?s annual budget amounted to about $83 million per parish, he reasoned.

?Surely a million or two could be lopped off each parish to provide adequate care and appreciation for the seriously neglected seniors.?

Mr. Aitchison would not give specific expense figures but said that he and his wife depended on pensions for their income and despite being included in an ?excellent? group insurance plan, funds were rapidly running out.

?It has finally reached the point where our financial adviser informed us emphatically that our savings and investments, if they diminish at the present rate, will run out in less than two years,? he said. ?He advised us to move to a retirement home either in the USA or Canada where our funds could last for another eight or nine years.?

Medical expenses were a major component of the costs of senior living, he continued, and even with his insurance plan he pays out hundreds of dollars in additional medical costs.

?In two recent days, I received bills of $700 each from two different medical specialists as well as one for $300. The total of $1,700 considerably exceeds my total pension income for the month,? he said.

?Never did we think that we would be priced out of Bermuda to the extent that we would not be able to spend the few remaining years we may still have ... but be driven out of Bermuda because we can no longer afford to live here.

?We are not alone in this predicament. Others have been steadily leaving and we know of others, like ourselves who are contemplating the same dilemma.?

Of Scottish heritage, Mr. Aitchison came to the Island at the age of six and has had a varied working life in Bermuda ? starting off as a salesman for Pearman Watlington before moving on to sports journalism for the Mid-Ocean News when it was an afternoon daily.

He then moved to the United States with his first wife because of a medical condition she suffered which required living in a drier climate, he explained.

The couple lived there for some 20 years and Mr. Aitchison remarried and returned to Bermuda in 1976. By then he was 60 and a chartered accountant and Mr. Aitchison worked for accountants Butterfield and Steinhoff for five years before retiring.Mrs. Aitchison spent much of her life as a piano and voice teacher and has been a church organist for many churches throughout the Island, including Christ Church in Warwick, St. Peter?s and St. Paul?s in Paget.

Mr. Aitchison said the pair would miss their friends and family members when they leave here at the end of September.

?But when you reach the point where your expenses are three times your income, you have to do something about it.

?And the expenses are not going down, they tend to go up.?