Having seen that the sugar workers were recently paid their 14 weeks' notice pay in preparation for the redundancy exercise, I would like to suggest to the Government that when they get to ready to make the payments they insist that each recipient open a savings account with either a commercial bank, building society or PC bank, and that the payment be made directly to the account and not to the individual in cheque or cash.

Changed lifestyle

Hopefully, it will help initiate a culture of savings and steer people away from hoarding cash and participating in partner schemes and other such alternative financial investments which lead to a feast or famine lifestyle. This will also reduce the likelihood of the recipient being robbed or being tempted to spend it unwisely on 'wine, women and gambling'.

I believe this to be particularly important at this time, as next year is going to be extremely challenging. If the sugar workers deposit their redundancy payment in savings accounts, this could go a long way to meeting school expenses and basic living requirements in the future.

I would also recommend that a series of meetings be held with the workers to educate them on the prudence of savings and basic investment principles, so that at the end of the divestment process value would be added to the individuals and the payments would contribute to an increase in their net wealth.

Difficulties

It will also be necessary for the financial institutions to work as closely as possible with the workers so that this can be realised, as I imagine at least some of the workers will have difficulty meeting their current requirements to open accounts, but at the end of the day everyone will benefit.

I am, etc.,

Mark Kerr-Jarrett

Managing Director

Barnett Limited

Montego Bay