Gov’t announces $2.7b in additional support for vulnerable citizens | Loop Jamaica

Black Immigrant Daily News

The Government is providing $2.7 billion in additional social intervention expenditure, which includes $750 million towards a campaign to clean up parish capitals and major townships ahead of Independence celebrations in August.

Of the amount, $550 million will be allocated to the National Solid Waste Management Authority, and $189 million to Members of Parliament via the Constituency Development Fund (CDF).

The announcement was made on Tuesday by the Minister of Finance and the Public Service, Dr Nigel Clarke, during a ministerial statement in the House of Representatives.

He said amounts allocated via the CDF can be used for beautification, bushing, drain-cleaning activities, and any other activity a Member of Parliament deems fit.

Clarke also announced that $150 million will go towards the trucking of water under the Ministry of Local Government and Community Development to areas experiencing water challenges “due to the erratic nature of rainfall islandwide and especially in the parishes of St Elizabeth, Clarendon and Portland but not limited to these parishes”.

There will also be $550 million in General Welfare Support for beneficiaries who are not on the Programme of Advancement Through Health and Education (PATH) in the following amounts: $189 million through the Ministry of Labour and Social Security; $189 million through the CDF for welfare and economic enablement activities; $70 million through municipal corporations for welfare and economic support; $52 million for poor relief through Ministry of Local Government and Community Development; and $50 million through the MLSS’s Public Assistance Department.

And, Clarke said $550 million has been allocated to pensioners at the bottom of the income ladder; $450 million for 45,000 NIS pensioners who receive pensions less than $15,000 per month, and $100 million for 10,000 social pensioners who are not PATH beneficiaries.

The finance minister also disclosed that $1.789 billion in back-to-school one-off grants, which will be implemented through the MLSS and directed towards 160,000 PATH school-aged children, has also been earmarked.

This is in addition to $189 million in back-to-school education grants and assistance to non-PATH vulnerable students through the CDF.

“You will note a total of $9 million per constituency in additional support to the Constituency Development Fund for the above-mentioned activities. I am advised by the CDF that each Member of Parliament should consult with the Director, CDF to be guided on the administration of these additional allocations,” Clarke told the House.

He explained that the additional $2.7 billion brings to $3.8 billion, the amount in social intervention expenditure provided by the Government. He said $1.1 billion is already accounted for in the budget, while the incremental $2.7 billion expenditure will initially be funded by advances from existing budgeted resources.

“These advances will be cleared following regularisation of the expenditure in the First Supplementary Estimates 2022/23,” Clarke said.

In giving reasons for the additional expenditure, Clarke highlighted that “the world is facing challenging times”.

“After enduring two years of the COVID-19 pandemic, the worst pandemic in 100 years, and the historic economic contraction it induced around the world, the world now faces the highest levels of global inflation in 40 years. Supply chain pressures related to the dynamics of COVID-19 had a negative impact on prices towards the latter half of 2021,” he said.

He added that: “This has been seriously compounded by the war in Ukraine, which began earlier this year. So even as we celebrate 8.2 per cent GDP growth for the 2021/22 fiscal year released by STATIN yesterday (Monday), which represents a strong start to our recovery, and as unemployment at 6.2 per cent is at a historic low, we need to ensure that we continue to provide protection for the most vulnerable and those impacted by global conditions who are least able to absorb these shocks.”

Clarke pointed to his closing budget presentation in March when he announced $3.5 billion of measures to alleviate the impact of these conditions.

The amounts included: $800 million to assist public transport operators as a means of protecting the substantial number of Jamaicans who depend on public transportation; $750 million for a food assistance programme targeting 75,000 Jamaicans; $152 million for an increase in the allocation toward transportation assistance to students on PATH; and approximately $2 billion to the GOJ Energy Co-Pay where theGovernment of Jamaica contributes 20 per cent of the JPS bill for all post-paid households that consume 200kWh of electricity or less, per month, over the four months of April 2022 to July 2022 as well as $3,000 per month over the same period for pre-paid residential customers.

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