NIS payout

Government has paid out $26.4 million in unemployment benefits towards 23,735 National Insurance (NIS) claims, Prime Minister Mia Mottley said tonight, revealing another feature of her administration’s grim economic reality under the COVID-19 pandemic.

And there are still millions more to pay out since just over half of the more than 40,000 claims so far have been honoured, the PM told journalists in a briefing at Lloyd Erskine Sandiford Centre.

“As of today, we had 41,836 claims for unemployment benefits and the National Insurance Scheme has in fact paid out already to 23 735 people advances on their claims to the tune so far of $26.4 million,” Mottley said.

In outlining other Government expenses incurred during the pandemic, the Prime Minister said that the Household Survival Programme that was originally meant to help 1,500 of the “most vulnerable” families has now increased to 2,500 people with the likelihood that the number could increase.

The PM said: “Initially when I spoke to the country in March we had said we were looking to support 1 500 families in the Adopt a Family programme that number, as of yesterday, has gone closer to 2 500 families and the truth is that the Government will have to make some adjustments because there is still a demand for some who are still falling through the cracks. Persons are being asked to confirm that there are not receiving money from NIS.”

Mottley also reminded the country that welfare recipients gained their first increase in benefits recently.

“Government would have given a top-up on all welfare benefits on April 1 by 40 per cent. Those benefits had not been increased for decades,” she told reporters. (IMC)