BASSETERRE, St. Kitts, Aug. 14.2018 – THE Government has extended the registration period for its new social assistance programme by two days, which is geared towards helping households making less than $3,000 per month.
Dr. Harris, while a guest on WINN FM’s Straight Talk with Minister Ian Liburd, revealed that the registration period which was expected to close tomorrow (Aug. 15) will be extended to Friday (Aug. 17).
He said that the decision was made at the cabinet level yesterday, with over 2,500 applications being made to the programme.
“So, the good news is that more persons have additional opportunities to register for a determination to be made on whether or not they qualified,” added Harris.
The prime minister described the numbers as being significant, pointing out that in the context of things, almost 10,000 people could be benefiting from the programme, based on the numbers.
“This then is the most significant delivery of social assistance in the history of the country,” he said, “and we take particular pleasure in doing this good deed for the people. It shows that we have remained faithful to the poor of the country, faithful in our commitment to bring them closer to prosperity—that is, to improve the quality of life that is to give them a fair share in the progress of the country; a fair share of the resources.”
The next phase of the programme will commence in the coming months, as government officials will now have to fact check to ensure that all information is correct.
They will have to confirm that the declaration of income matches those of the records at Social Security. That is being done to minimize fraud within the system.
The social assistance programme was a campaign promise made by the government to people of St. Kitts and Nevis during the lead-up to the 2015 General Elections.
Many had expected that within the early days after the polls, that would have been one of the priority programmes the government would have implemented; however, the Team Unity administration pledged that they have time and would bring that into being soon.
