$40 million in COVID assistance for persons with disabilities
Published:Thursday | April 30, 2020 | 10:16 AM
Minister of Finance and the Public Service, Dr Nigel Clarke, has indicated that persons with disabilities who are having challenges accessing the benefits of the COVID Allocation of Resources for Employees (CARE) programme will be given special consideration.
Addressing the House of Representatives on Tuesday, Clarke said $40 million will be transferred to the Ministry of Labour and Social Security to provide support to the community of persons living with disabilities.
“While some persons living with disabilities have signed up for and will benefit from compassionate grants, others within this group experience unique challenges that make it difficult for them to sign up online, to have an ID, to go to a bank to collect, so we have to accommodate them and ensure that they are included and have a parallel mechanism, while ensuring that we don’t have persons who are double-dipping,” he said.
The Government has instituted a multibillion-dollar COVID Allocation of Resources for Employees (CARE) programme to assist workers and businesses during the emergency period caused by the coronavirus (COVID-19).
Clarke pointed out that further details on how persons with disabilities will access the benefits will be outlined by the Ministry of Labour and Social Security, noting that persons will be required to provide a Tax Registration Number.
Meanwhile, he said the Ministry is also working with members of the Household Workers Union to assist members who had been terminated after March 10 due to COVID-19.
He argued that the development, deployment and execution of the CARE programme is another demonstration that the public sector is “nimble, agile and responsive”.
He also recognised Southern Global Services, which has supplied customer care services to the CARE project free of charge.
Clarke informed that as at noon on April 28 a total of 496,962 applications were received for the CARE programme.
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