Black Immigrant Daily News
Government is committed to restructuring the Welfare Department to have an accurate list of its clientele.
There are some persons who try to cheat the system and deny other people the opportunity to be able to benefit from the limited resources that the government has.
Minister of People Empowerment and Elder Affairs, Kirk Humphrey revealed people were trying to “cheat the system” and benefit from the services of the Welfare Department while being employed.
“We have asked the Welfare Department and we have committed the resources to go through each and every person one by one, visit the household, determine if the person is indeed still in a circumstance that requires that they still be on the welfare list and be able to clean that list.
It may not result in the list being a smaller list, but it will result in the list being a more accurate list so that we know who is deserving of welfare,” Humphrey said while delivering the feature address at the National Task Force on Homelessness meeting, held at the Radisson Aquatica Hotel on Wednesday.
“I hate to say this but it is the truth, that there are some persons who try to cheat the system and deny other people the opportunity to be able to benefit from the limited resources that the Government has,” the Minister contended.
Based on evidence from the National Insurance Scheme (NIS), some employed individuals continue to benefit from the Welfare Department, reported Minister Humphrey.
“We’ve seen the evidence from the NIS and so on. We know that they are working but the records do not reflect that they are working, so they benefit from the Welfare [Department] when they should not.”
“We have people who present at [the] Welfare [Department], leave the Welfare [Department, then try to present at the National Assistance Board, they go to the various agencies,” he also explained.
The Minister stressed that a new “management information system” was crucial to addressing the inconsistencies in the system.
“The management information system that we are now working on, allows us all to plug in, allows us all to be reading from the same page and tells us exactly who and what and where they’re getting their resources, for the Government to make proper decisions. Because at the end of the day, it is about a collective response to what is indeed a comprehensive and complex challenge.”
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