Funding to social benefits programme surges
Published:Wednesday | March 5, 2025 | 12:08 AM
Allocation to vulnerable groups under one of the Government’s social programmes has increased exponentially for the 2025-2026 financial year.
Under the caption, ‘Public assistance and support to other vulnerable groups’, spending for the new fiscal year has skyrocketed by 154 per cent, moving from approximately $657 million in financial year 2024-2025 to more than $1.7 billion.
Projected spending on the same programme for the next three financial years spanning 2026-2027 to 2028-2029 see an average allocation of about $664 million.
Starting tomorrow, members of parliament will comb through the estimates of expenditure during the two-day meeting of the Standing Finance Committee of Parliament.
The funds earmarked for vulnerable persons fall under a programme to support specific target groups in the society through income transfer programmes, individual care and training.
The Ministry of Labour and Social Security, which administers the programme, says it “provides aid to those who are not covered under the National Insurance Scheme, the disabled, those nutritionally at risk and victims of various misfortunes”.
TRANSPARENCY AND ACCOUNTABILITY
Fielding questions from journalists during a post-Cabinet press briefing in late February, Labour and Social Security Minister Pearnel Charles Jr sought to assure Jamaicans that the distribution of social benefits by the Government has been streamlined to ensure transparency and accountability.
The minister was asked whether his ministry had addressed concerns raised in a recent auditor general’s report which found several discrepancies in the management of its social benefits programmes.
In a report tabled in Parliament earlier this year, the auditor general urged the Government to implement outstanding reforms to streamline its social protection efforts.
Charles told journalists that his ministry has developed criteria that were being used in the distribution of social benefits.
“There are needs assessments that are required and mandated in terms of beneficiaries being identified and the circumstances being detailed and there are other elements that are now required to ensure transparency,” Charles said.
In her audit, Auditor General Pamela Monroe Ellis found that deficiencies identified decades ago, pertaining to the overlapping of social benefits programmes and below-par organisation of benefits distribution, persisted.
“I urge the relevant government agencies, particularly the ministry responsible for social security, to spearhead efforts to coordinate with stakeholders in implementing the recommendations,” the auditor general stated in her report.
Monroe Ellis noted that Jamaica’s Social Safety Net (SSN) reform was not implemented as planned, and, as such, the only piece of legislation that governs social assistance is the Poor Relief Act of 1886.
Under the SSN reform, the Poor Relief Act was to be repealed and responsibilities transferred to the Ministry of Labour and Social Security as the Government moves to establish a unified benefits programme under the National Assistance Bill which would provide comprehensive social assistance to vulnerable groups, thereby ensuring that provisions are in law for poverty reduction and social protection focusing on the most vulnerable.