In at least 10 entities of the Republic, older adults face lines of up to three hours, sometimes under the sun’s rays, to collect their bimonthly pensions as demand exceeds capacity cashier service of the Welfare Bank (BanBien).
“I don’t understand why every time I come to the ATM the money runs out, I have gone three days at different times and when I am missing five or two people, the device says that it does not have money.
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Lasted up to three hours formed and I leave empty handed”, he laments Peter Cornejooutside the Avenida Juárez branch, in downtown Guadalajara.
He Wellness Bank (formerly Bansefi) is one of the flagship projects of the president’s government Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador. At the end of last month, the institution operated thousand 952 branches throughout the national territory, according to its director, Victor Lamoyi Bocanegraduring the morning conference on May 30.
He report presented that day indicates that 2,138 branches have been built out of the 2,744 promised by the Executive since the beginning of 2020, although the original plan was for them to be ready by 2021.
Same as with others megaprojectsthe President commissioned in a first stage to the Secretary of National Defense (Sedena) construction work, but in August 2020 he was also assigned the task of equipping each property with ATMs.
The foregoing occurred after in mid-2020 the Secretary of Finance and BanBien requested the early termination of a contract signed on December 5, 2019 with the company VivColmex to provide ATMs to the branch offices. The argument was the lack of budget to comply with the payment of up to 10 thousand 800 million pesos that the equipment would cost.
The sedena then signed, in July 2021, a contract with the company GRG Hong Kong Mexico to provide ATMs to the new branches of the Ban Bien for a maximum amount of 854.6 million pesos. The Superior Audit of the Federation found irregularities in said contract, such as the untimely delivery of the equipment.
UNDER THE SUN
“I have had to be in the sun outside the bench that is in the roundabout of the Paloma de la Paz (Cuernavaca). There is only one ATM for all of us who come, and sometimes one, like an old man, takes time pressing the buttons, I mean, one who comes alone, because I have seen that others send their children or grandchildren”, says Blanca Pérez, 74 years old. , who prefer to get up early to go to the branch or come back the next day if there are a lot of people.
On a tour of branches of the Ban Bien carried out by Organización Editorial Mexicana (OEM), it was observed Long lines in units in Jalisco, Morelos, Baja California, New Leon, Veracruz, Zacatecas, Chihuahua, Aguascalientes, Tlaxcala and Durango. The al. was consulted Wellness Bank to find out his position on this situation, but at the close of the edition he still had not answered.
In Tijuana, Baja California, in the Wellness Bank which is a few meters from the El Chaparral International sentry box, Martha López, 72, tells of her experience in removing the four thousand 800 pesos bimonthly deposited by the government.
“It was a lot of disorder because there was no one to guide us, we made a very long line in the sun. As I was arriving, halfway down the line they told us that there was no money in the bank anymore”.
Bliss branch It only has one cashier and two service windows and it is one of the five in the state. People who walk slowly, lean on a cane, are sick or in wheelchairs arrive at this, as at other branches, and wait for hours without awnings or places to sit in most spaces. “I feel sorry for people who are very old and have illnesses, standing in line standing in the sun, with no place to sit, sometimes we are like balls from here to there,” says the woman.
In the suburban area of Veracruz-Boca del Río there are two branches of Wellness Bank, one in the Historic Center, where the Long lines they come around the block to Avenida Independencia.
“I have passed and there are lines that go around (…) all of us who are older adults, being here in full sunlight, with physical needs, it is very difficult for us to endure this, with endless lines,” he complains. Rosa Farías, an elderly woman.
The State Human Rights Commission of Nuevo León (CEDHNL) urged the Banco del Bienestar to implement measures that help reduce the waiting time to serve users. “This Commission makes a careful and respectful appeal to take action to reduce the waiting time to provide care to users of the Wellness Bank”, indicates the letter addressed to the general director of this institution, Víctor Manuel Lamoyi Bocanegra.
In April, the welfare secretaryAriadna Montiel, announced that the pension for the elderly would only be deposited in the Wellness Bankand no longer in BBVA, previously it stopped paying in Banamex, so since then the change of cards started and from July, deposits will only be made in the Cuatroté bank.
“Now, with the change from the Bancomer card to the Welfare card, many doubts arose. We are already old and we do not understand very well how to register the plastic or change the aforementioned PIN, we ask the guys in the vest for help and they are not always friendly, they have so many people with questions that they get desperate and their treatment changes and that’s it They don’t clarify our doubts because they serve everyone,” says María Arredondo, a pensioner from Morelos.
This transition was more complicated in Chihuahua. The only Integrator Module in the state capital where the wellness cards to collect the pension was saturated due to the high number of users, who waited up to four hours to be attended.
Since the end of 2022, the new plastic began to be delivered to those who collected in Banamex; however, in recent days, people lagging behind and those scheduled for 2023 have converged.
By the third week of May, the rows They were up to 300 older adults who remained standing for four hours, some supported with canes or walkers. There were cases of heat stroke and six fainting, due to high temperatures.
In view of the reports from the beneficiaries, the delegation of the Welfare He set up tents, chairs, offered bottles of water, and assigned more staff to care for the elderly. Currently, senior citizens already collect their pension in the Wellness Bank, where there are also long lines, because there are only two branches, each with two ATMs and customer service.
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In the city of Durangoeach day of payment they are placed outside the branches of the Wellness Bank awnings so that they are under the shade and the National Guard or the State Police protect the facilities and help the nation’s servants who work in the government bank. To improve the service, users suggested installing a fila for sick or disabled people, set up chairs on paydays, awnings to cover themselves from the sun, and train the nation’s servants to treat them well.
María Luisa lives in Rodeo, Zacatecas, and for two years she has received the pension for the elderly. “I can’t walk a lot or stay on my feet for a long time, so I don’t go there (to the branch of the Welfare), I prefer to pay the commission of 30 pesos at the bank teller that is next to the presidency or at Telégrafos that is in the square”. With information from Velvet González / El Heraldo de Chihuahua and David Casas / Correspondent, GIOVANNY URENDA / El Sol de Tijuana
2023-06-11 08:00:00
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