Attorney General Steadroy Benjamin moves to end ‘free care’ of patients at Fiennes nursing home
Children and relatives who register elderly parents and loved ones at the Fiennes Institute could soon be required to pay toward their upkeep, under a new mandate expected in the Aged Care Bill that Attorney General Sir Steadroy Benjamin says will be brought to Parliament in 2026.
Speaking on the final day of the 2026 Budget Debate in the House of Representatives on Monday, Sir Steadroy said the measure is aimed at tackling what he described as a troubling pattern of abandonment and neglect of the elderly in Antigua and Barbuda.
“Too often we’ve heard of persons going and taking their parents, not looking after them at all,” he told lawmakers, as he signalled that the forthcoming legislation will seek to make families financially accountable when they leave relatives in state care.
Sir Steadroy also recounted a case he said has troubled him for years, describing a daughter who travelled from the United States, removed her mother from the institution, took her to the bank to sign documents “leaving everything to that daughter,” then bought her food and returned her to Fiennes before leaving the country. “That has to stop,” he said.
The Attorney General argued the government can no longer continue carrying the full burden where families are able but unwilling to assist.
“Those people who leave their parents there to Fiennes will be made responsible for their upkeep. We will not allow that to continue anymore…That is cruelty…your own parents…What has become of us in Antigua and Barbuda?” he asked, while indicating that colleagues would work together to get the legislation done.
Fiennes Institute is the country’s main publicly operated residential facility providing institutional care for older persons.
The institution has had longstanding challenges: there is no established admissions criterion, and the facility can be misused when relatives place older persons in government care “free of charge” while using their pensions or assets.
Some elderly persons are abandoned, including cases where relatives do not take them home after hospitalisation or leave them at the front gate.
Sir Steadroy’s proposed “subsistence” payment requirement mirrors these concerns, effectively shifting part of the cost of care back onto families who are able to contribute, while the state continues operating the institution as a safety net.
It is unfair for children to expect the government to take care of their parents when they are of age. Shame on them
Why not levy such care against the assets of the elderly. Placing a caveat on them.
Once assigned to fiennes or any other govt institution. Social security should pay fiennes. Abandonment means heirs and successors abandon any inheritances.
It is unbelievable how children can just dump their parents and leave them in the hands of a state that dont even have the resources, This always baffles me
We have become, regrettably, a cold, crass, wicked, greedy, uncaring people. Heaven help us all!
We need to do better for our elderly. We have failed them.tremendously
Some children died before their parents. Government must always have a safteynet
Do these ppl get social security, do they have properties in their name, that should be their payment, if the have money why would they live at fiennes
Is because they are poor, so we are suppressing the poor for money, the street going to be full of homeless ppl. Politicians look down from their mansions and say how can I get money from the underprivileged Benjamin stop the over eating and donate food at the institution help the poor.
Who going and pay for a place like that?
Mental hospital will have to pay soon now you all ppl out?
The elderly are the fabric of our country please take care of them they did their part to society we needs to do our part and take care of them, government, children, churches, villages what money just stop it.
The government know how it is..you cant force children to take care of the older people but u can provide a better place for them