Pictured above BARP President Marilyn Rice-Bowen showing the BARP membership card.

In one week, the Barbados Association of Retired Persons (BARP) will formally lower its membership eligiblity age from  50 to 40 years.

Today, BARP President Marilyn Rice-Bowen reminded a press conference that at the association’s Annual General Meeting held on December 3 2021, a resolution was tabled and passed to allow persons 40 plus to be able to become members, primarily to assist them with the process of planning for retirement from an earlier age.

“And why it’s important to start early is because very often, younger people tend to view the fact that one, they will not be around at 65 because 65 is real far and two, they always feel that seniors don’t need money.

“They figure that you just sit and blow away or whatever. But you still need to have money, you still need to go to the grocery, you pay the same utility bills. So, the 40’s are not taking over. They are coming and they are going to blend into the family,” she said.

The newest members will also benefit from discounts at businesses across the island, life insurance, health insurance, home insurance and  motor insurance which Rice-Bowen said will be launched shortly.

The official sign up and joining date for the 40-49-year-olds is Wednesday April 20, 2022, when a Members’ Fest will be held at BARP’s Headquarters, Mervue House, Marine Gardens, Hastings, Christ Church.

The President said that at the event where the emphasis will be on taking advantage of key platforms and maintaining and attaining a better quality of life, the association will also welcome the return of inactive members who will be required to pay the same fee as a first timer.

She made it clear that even though some persons in their 40s who may have an issue joining the organisation because its name might not appeal to their youthfulness, the association will continue to use its acronym.

The president said the association has maintained a spreadsheet of those who had previously indicated that they wanted to join BARP.

“There are quite a few people who are indeed ready. Like everything else you would get people who would be sitting and saying BARP is not for them. But they too will come around when they recognize that BARP is more than a source of discount.

“If you speak to some of them, some of them don’t even have health insurance, some might have families, some of them might have homes and these homes might not be insured. When you are a member of BARP there are certain opportunities that exist,” she said.

Rice-Bowen also announced that on April 20, the Life Benefit presently paid by members will become optional and no longer linked to the membership fee. She said those persons joining for the first time will be required to pay $75.

However, she stressed that it is important for members to purchase the Life Benefit, explaining that between May 2020 and May 2021, 307 families received assistance from the benefit with the insurance company paying in excess of 1.5 million dollars.

“I want to re-emphasize the power of this BARP card, the reach of this card. This card gives families the comfort and the knowledge that their financial expectations can be realized. BARP is everywhere and I want to encourage Barbadians aged 40 and above to come join BARP, be a member and be BARP-certified because that is what it is. BARP is a deeper and richer organisation than discounts,” Rice-Bowen said.

BARP’s Interim Chief Executive Officer Dr Glenda Gilkes said that those persons with internet access, can go online and join BARP through its official website which will be launched one minute past midnight on April 19. Dr Gilkes said those who attend Members’ Fest on April 30 will be allowed to enter a raffle where two persons will win dehydrators.

ARTICLE FIRST APPEARED IN BARBADOS TODAY.

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BL&P accused of failure to follow through on plant improvements after last rate hike

Article by
Emmanuel JosephPublished on
April 14, 2022

A group of individuals and organisations are gearing up for battle to ensure that consumers are not disadvantaged as the Barbados Light & Power Company (BL&P) seeks an increase in electricity rates.

Eight intervenors, including two government divisions, two associations, two coalitions and two individuals, have been approved by the Fair Trading Commission (FTC) to participate in the rate review hearings, as the power company seeks new rates that would allow it to raise $440.2 million in revenue.

One of the intervenors, prominent attorney-at-law Tricia Watson, said while objectors accept the increasing global oil prices will cause light bills to increase, they will be seeking to ensure the rates being requested by BL&P are fair.

“While we understand that global oil prices will affect consumers’ bills adversely, we will not take our eyes off the ball which is to fight for a reasonable increase in this current rate request,” said Watson who is an intervenor alongside Managing Director of Prestige Accounting Inc. David Simpson.

Another intervenor, Ricky Went, stated that while consumers having to bear increases in fuel prices is par for the course, “we have to fight even harder to make sure that consumers are fairly treated”.

The Barbados Association of Retired Persons (BARP), which will be represented by Douglas Skeete as well as the Public Counsel at the hearings, will also be taking a stand against the BL&P, its president Marilyn Rice-Bowen declared at a press conference on Wednesday.

“When BARP comes out, our voice will be against the rate increase. I know that people will speak about the current situation in Ukraine and Russia and all of that, but we are going to hold our position,” she said, against the background of the rising cost of oil on the international market since the start of the Russia-Ukraine war in February.

The other intervenors approved by the FTC are the Barbados Renewable Energy Association (BREA); the Government’s Energy Division; the Small Business and Entrepreneurship Division of the Ministry of Energy, Small Business, and Entrepreneurship; the Cooperative Coalition of the Barbados Sustainable Energy Cooperative Society Limited; and Dr Roland Clarke.

The BL&P rate review hearings, for which a start date has not yet been announced by the FTC, will be coming on the heels of the utility provider increasing the Fuel Clause Adjustment (FCA) component of electricity bills for the month of April to approximately 45 cents per kilowatt-hour, which is 22 per cent more than in March.

The rate hike which the BL&P is seeking represents an increase in revenue of $46.5 million a year.

Intervenors have indicated they intend to question the fairness of such an increase, given that the BL&P has not acted prudently since receiving a rate hike from the FTC in 2009.

Back then, the BL&P applied for a rate increase, in part, on the basis that it intended to retire and replace an inefficient steam plant as part of its capital expansion programme. It projected it would save around $30 million per year in fuel by being able to install new equipment which would use not only less fuel but less costly fuel.

The FTC had approved the rate increase with the understanding that it would help fund the new plant.

However, sources in the energy sector contended that BL&P never replaced the plant and its continued use of old, inefficient steam generators between 2012 and 2021 had cost customers and the country.

“The failure to make those investments cost Barbadian rate-payers an estimated $270 million in unrealised fuel cost savings over nine years, based on BL&P’s own projections of $30 million per year at a cost of US$60 per barrel [of oil],” the sources declared. “In turn, the country would have lost millions in foreign reserves to purchase oil.”

With the FCA being 50 per cent of customers’ bill, Went noted that in 2013, the FTC stated that “as a priority, the BL&P should replace the steam turbine generators with a more efficient generating plant in order to reduce fuel costs”.

Following its investigation into a two-day blackout in November 2019, the FTC concluded that the utility company “had insufficient operating reserves to sustain adequate energy supply to customers on a consistent basis”.

That finding, along with the significant unrealised savings, will be in the intervenors’ arsenal in the upcoming rate hearings.

They believe that had BL&P retired the steam plant and installed more efficient generating units with the appropriate capacity, there would not have been substantial losses to the economy and homeowners directly, as a result of the blackout.

emmanueljoseph@barbadostoday.bb, anestahenry@barbadostoday.bb, PR