Story By: Sergiu Nazaru, Sub Editor: Joseph Golder, Agency: Newsflash
The Romanian Minister of Labour has apologised to an elderly woman after it was revealed she was getting a pension of three GBP a month.
Widow Jurj Fica, 76, who has no children or grandchildren and lives alone on a remote hillside location on the edge of a forest gets a pension each month of just RON 15 (GBP 2.77) per month.
She only gets by because she also has a cow, a horse that can help plough fields and get around, and some chickens.
But she has little contact with anyone who could help her with her situation and even the postman only visits her once a month when he delivers her pension because she is so far away.
Her story became national news however when Bogdan Cristea heard about her story and decided to try and raise some donations by posting it on social media.
He invited people to donate goods or cash to the old woman from Fantanele village, in Ceru Bacainti commune, which is in central Romania’s Alba county and was flooded with offers when the appeal went viral.
He said he had only got involved when he saw himself that somebody else had posted online, and decided to visit her personally where he realised what a bad situation she was in.
He added: “After seeing the conditions in which she lives, I decided to help publicise it as well.”
He said he was delighted with the reaction and told Newsflash: “Many good people reacted positively and were interested in helping her in some way, with both food and small sums of money.”
And now the case has reached all the way to the Romanian Minister of Labour, Violeta Alexandru. In a message published on social media, the minister said that she had checked the situation and that her officials had made an error when calculating the OAP’s pension which should have been updated to bring in line with modern costs.
Violeta Alexandru added: “I asked for information on how this had happened and what measures were being taken to correct it. Either way, she will get what she deserves now and any unpaid amounts will also be credited to her.”
She added that a personal note: “I’m sorry, ma’am!”
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