A senior was left wondering how to afford her living expenses in March after she was paid a fraction of her typical monthly pension.

Christine Atcheson, 74, said that she would struggle to make ends meet after her pension deposit, which is often about $700, was only $16.20 this month.

A spokeswoman for the Ministry of Finance confirmed that 136 seniors received duplicate pension payments last April and that this was done to rectify the error.

Ms Atcheson, however, complained that the reduction was handled irresponsibly.

The St David’s resident said: “Why take the whole of a senior’s pension for one month? I don’t understand the lack of compassion and caring that this shows.

“There are people out there who literally live on every single penny of that and if it’s not coming in, who knows what’s going to happen to them.”

Ms Atcheson, who often gets her pension payment at about the middle of the month, said that she received her reduced payment on February 14.

She said that she first thought the rest would come through after the weekend — but when she checked again last Monday, her bank account had not been updated.

Ms Atcheson said that she called the Department of Social Insurance, which told her there had been a duplicate payment in April 2024 that was being rectified with a pension deduction.

She explained: “What happened was, they had decided that in January they were going to send out a letter telling everyone who had gone through this double payment that we would not receive our full pension in February.”

Ms Atcheson, however, pointed out that she never received the letter, which instead had been sent to a residence in Somerset that she had last lived in decades ago.

She added that she and other affected seniors were not given enough time to save money or secure loans.

Ms Atcheson said that she later turned to social media to see if others had suffered the same problem.

She said that not only were many other seniors going through a similar situation, but that they all came to the same conclusion — the deductions should have been carried out in increments over time.

Ms Atcheson said: “What they’re saying, and I agree with them, is why didn’t they [the social insurance department] say, ‘We’ll take 20 per cent a month of what you owe us’?”

She added: “One lady wrote online that she knows a lady that this just happened to.

“That pension was going to pay for her caregiver and for her food, but now she can’t pay her caregiver.”

Ms Atcheson said that because of this massive deduction, she would struggle to make ends meet for the next few weeks.

She added that many seniors would be in a similar position and that deductions such as this could be “devastating” to pensioners living in a seniors home.

A spokeswoman for the Ministry of Finance said that the Department of Social Insurance was made aware of potential duplicate pension payments in April 2024.

She said that the error was not confirmed until September.

The ministry spokeswoman added: “The confirmation of the duplicate payment coincided with implementation of the 2024 pension benefit increase.

“To avoid overlap with this increase and subsequently to protect pensioner payments during the holiday season, the Department of Social Insurance waited until February to recoup the funds.

“Notifications were sent on January 20, 2025, advising clients of this deduction and requesting they contact us if they had any concerns by February 4, 2025.

“On February 17, 2025, 136 clients had deductions made to their pension benefits.”

The ministry spokeswoman said: “We are actively investigating the cause of this error and have continuously communicated with the bank to determine the issue.

“As of now, there has been no confirmed explanation for the cause. We regret any inconvenience this has caused.

• All affected pensioners and others with questions should contact the Department of Social Insurance on 294-9242 or e-mail socialinsurance@gov.bm