Senior citizens in Naucalpan, México state, grew angry after the local welfare office had them waiting in the street over eight hours only to be told that they would have to come back another day to receive their benefits.

“They’re treating us like beggars,” some shouted as others became weak from standing outside all day long.

The senior citizens had begun to line up around 8:00 a.m. on Thursday, but by 4:00 p.m. they still had not received their payments and were told they would have to return another day.

Town councilman Anselmo García Cruz called the treatment of the senior citizens “inhumane and irresponsible.” García presides over the commission on senior citizen services for the municipality, a northwestern suburb of the capital.

“It’s chaos. People were fainting because they had been given appointments in the morning, and now [at 4:00 p.m.] they’re being told that they still won’t be paid. It’s outrageous that they’re being given this beggar’s treatment,” he said.

The federal Welfare Secretariat’s “68 and Over” program is charged with distributing monthly welfare payments of just over 2,600 pesos (US $140) to people aged 68 and older. García accused the Naucalpan office of lacking organization.

Having learned that they’d waited all day in vain, many of the senior citizens threatened to set up a roadblock on the busy Periférico Norte highway that connects Naucalpan with neighboring Mexico City.

Source: El Universal (sp)