Editor’s Note: Following is an open letter to the Senate Committee on Health, Hospitals and Human Services Chairman Ray Fonseca, Vice Chairman Kenneth Gittens, and members Sens. Novelle Francis, Marvin Blyden, Diane Capehart, Samuel Carrion, Donna Frett-Gregory, Marise James and Milton Potter.
To the Senate Committee on Health, Hospitals and Human Services,
According to the 2020 Census of the U.S. Virgin Islands, approximately 28 percent of the Virgin Islands population is age 60 and older. This compares to 22 percent throughout the entire USA. The USVI has an aging population, and we need to be cognizant of the needs of seniors in the territory. Considering the challenges of limited public transportation, inter-island travel, unreliable power, high food prices and tropical weather, the USVI is not always an easy location for life as a senior citizen.
One of the small but significant benefits of life as a senior Virgin Islands resident is our “Senior Identification Card” and the benefits it entitles to such things as reduced price passenger ferry and barge tickets, reduced fees for vehicle registration, and discounts at a number of retail establishments. My husband and I have proudly carried our Senior Cards since we were first able to qualify for them almost 15 years ago.
As we all know, aging is a one-way street: we never get younger. So it seems incredibly ironic that the Virgin Islands Senior Card expires every five years and we need to find our way to a government office to obtain a new one. The expired card shows our birthdate, so why would anyone question our eligibility as a senior citizen if more than five years have elapsed since the card was issued? We haven’t gotten any younger. In fact, we are five years older.
For St John residents the renewal of a Senior Card presents an extra burden. Although the St Thomas office of the Department of Human Services which issues the cards is open five days a week, they refuse to issue new or renewal cards to St John residents. And the satellite office on St John is only open for a few hours one day a month, and if the power is out, or the employee is ill, or the weather is unsafe, then that office isn’t open.
Why do Senior Cards expire (other than when the senior themselves expire)? What is the point of the $5 renewal fee? Consider this: there are around 25,000 senior citizens in the territory. If all of them have a Senior Card, then around 5,000 cards will need to be renewed every year (the card is valid for five years, so one fifth of the cards need to be renewed per year). At $5 renewal fee per card, this renewal only generates $25,000 per year, less than the amount needed to fund one full-time position. The renewal creates huge problems for the senior citizens of the territory, with no rhyme nor reason, and no significant benefits to the GVI. It is, pure and simple, needless and pointless bureaucracy.
I respectfully request, on behalf of the 25,000 senior citizens in the USVI, that you introduce a bill in the next Session to remove the expiration of Senior Cards, applicable to all existing cards and cards issued in the future.
Sincerely,
— Susan Silverman, age 75, a proud senior resident of the Virgin Islands
