| dc.description.abstract | I conducted a study on the Access and Utilization of the Senior Citizen Grant (SCG) among the
elderly in Buliisa district, Uganda. The study was carried out in Buliisa subcounty and Biiso
subcounty in Buliisa district. The study was guided by the specific objectives, and the specific
objectives of this study were to examine the perceptions of the elderly in accessing of SCG in
Buliisa District, to find out how the elderly in Buliisa district utilize the SCG and to establish the
welfare effects of the SCG among beneficiaries in Buliisa District. A cross sectional survey
design was employed in the study with both quantitative and qualitative approaches which were
used to generate the required information from the study participants. The findings showed that
the elders knew about the grant and defined it as; money for people aged 80 and above, a grant
for the elderly and free money given to the elderly by government. The elderly were all able to
access the Senior Citizens Grant as long as one was 80 years old and above. The grant covered
the whole district, all villages, sub counties and all parishes in the district. The grant was
distributed at parish level where it was availed at pay points in every parish in the district and
only a national ID was required from an old person to receive the money. However, due to old
age, elderly accessibility to the grant was majorly hindered by transportation to the pay points.
Most of them used motorcycles for transport to ease accessibility while a few walked to the pay
points. Those that used motorcycles for transportation to the pay point spent 29% of the grant on
transportation leaving them with little money which got finished before the next quarter’s
distribution. The findings also revealed that the elderly utilized their money effectively and the
study showed that women utilized their money better than men in terms of productivity. Majority
of the elders used their money to meet basic needs, paid school fees, investments, health bills and
other facilitations they required. A few of the elderly had some safety concerns, this implied that
the security of the elderly persons should be prioritized both in the community and at home since
their lives were in danger after they received the money. The study also found that 85% of the
elders’ lives had changed positively and of the 100 who participated in the study, 27 had started
income generating activities from the grant and this implied that the SCG improved the lives of
the elderly people in Buliisa and Biiso sub counties in Buliisa district. In conclusion, the
participants suggested that the government should increase the money, others said it should start
up projects and saving groups for the elderly so that the SCG is more beneficial to them. | en_US |
