Colombia Mayor: 3 Million Elderly Caught in a Budget Fight
A handover report says the cash-transfer programme has no budget left for the rest of 2026. The government that wrote the budget says otherwise. The post Colombia Mayor: 3 Million Elderly Caught in a Budget Fight appeared first on The Rio Times .
The cash-transfer programme providing monthly payments to about three million elderly people in Colombia without pensions is facing a budget shortfall for the final four cycles of 2026, according to a handover report. While the government claims the programme exhausts its full-year 2026 budget in July, leaving five cycles unfunded, the outgoing director of Prosperidad Social, the department that runs the programme, denies this assertion.
The monthly cost of the unfunded cycles is estimated at about COP 630 billion, or roughly US$201 million. The programme's budget is set at COP 8.4 trillion for 2026, with COP 3.2 trillion (about US$1 billion) allocated from the national budget, and the remaining funds expected to be co-financed by the pension solidarity fund and the labour ministry.
The controversy surrounding the budget dispute adds to the challenges faced by the incoming government as it addresses the earthquake repair bill, which is estimated at roughly US$9.6 billion.
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