Survival funds to be ready soon

by Kareem Smith

A Government programme created to help vulnerable households through the COVID-19 pandemic is now overwhelmed with thousands of citizens anxious to access the much-needed funds.

Special Advisor to the Prime Minister on Poverty and the Sustainable Development Goals Corey Lane recently revealed that in just the last four days, over 7,000 requests were received.

Consequently, volunteers have been struggling to keep up with the requests.

“We were backed up from the 12th of April but some additional volunteers came on board last night and we are now trying to get current. We have an additional team to deal with calls received on Thursday and they will get through today and those who called between the 12th and 15th should be processed by tonight, because we are working through the night,” the special advisor promised while responding to questions on CBC Radio.

The Barbados Vulnerable Families Survival Programme was conceptualised to shield impoverished families from the economic strain resulting from COVID-19.

These measures allow people receiving benefits from the state-owned National Insurance Scheme and others on welfare to have at least $600 per month.

Lane explained that call centres were set up to allow persons in need, who are not currently receiving government benefits, to be added to the existing database.

“Over the last four days, the system has become overloaded because over 7 000 people have called and many of them are causing undue stress on the system,” Lane disclosed.

“I am imploring people who have called already to register and those who are on NIS or welfare to just relax, take a deep breath and allow the system to work. People are working around the clock and I have volunteers who are working until 2 a.m. to get all of the data in….Nobody is sitting behind phones filing their nails or wasting time,” he said.

The Government consultant explained that cutting edge technology has been acquired to ensure that every call made to the hotline is logged. This allows volunteers, made up primarily of social workers to respond to every call.

“We have a system to respond to every single call barring none. I have asked all the officers who currently receive an average of 100 to 120 calls a day or at the office which takes approximately 170 calls a day, to log every single call, put it in the system, remove the duplicates and distribute it to the volunteers so that everyone is processed,” Lane said.

He added that once social workers have contacted those in need, they conduct a rapid assessment in which they ask approximately two dozen questions to gauge the eligibility of persons requesting welfare assistance from the Government.

Lane promised that from “early” next week, eligible Barbadians will be given specifics on distribution centres which will be set up across the country and manned by police and defence officials.

To assist, Lane disclosed that FirstCaribbean International Bank (FCIB) in collaboration with Government would be making 2500 pre-loaded debit cards available to be collected at the distribution centres.
kareemsmith@barbadostoday.bb