CI$1 million set aside for isolation stipend

| 25/10/2021 | 43 Comments

(CNS): The government has approved one million dollars in funding for an ex gratia stipend for Caymanians and permanent residents who cannot work because they are required to isolate as a result of COVID-19. The stipend will be available through the end of the year, according to Finance Minister Chris Saunders. This will mostly impact self-employed, contract or casual workers in the private sector who cannot do their jobs remotely.

“The government is aware of the hardship COVID-19 isolation can take on households and particularly on those families with smaller trade and service-based employers who are not able to work remotely from their place of isolation,” he said in a release from his ministry.

“When these employees are placed into isolation, it is possible that some portion of that period will be unpaid. This situation is particularly difficult when a household has more than one breadwinner in isolation, and the loss of income is multiplied.”

Saunders added, “The health and safety of our population has been and remains at the heart of all policy decisions relating to the reopening of our borders. It’s important that we protect the community as much as possible from widespread COVID-19, but we understand while isolation and quarantine protocols are required, it may cause a financial burden to some. It is the hope that this ex gratia stipend will help to reduce the stress and worry that people feel during these times.”

To qualify for the ex gratia stipend, potential recipients must meet the following criteria:

  • Must have been in Public Health directed isolation
  • Must be in non-traveller related isolation/quarantine
  • Must attest to not receiving a salary from their employer or if self-employed must show they are not able to work from isolation
  • Must provide a declaration that they are not receiving holiday pay or similar compensation
  • Must not be an existing Tourism Displaced Worker stipend recipient
  • Must be Caymanian, Permanent Resident or married to a Caymanian with an Employment Rights Certificate (RERC).

Applications for the stipend can be submitted online and must include the necessary relevant documents as follows:

  • A copy of Cayman Islands voter registration card, Caymanian Status Certificate or Right to be Caymanian Certificate
  • A copy of the last payslip or official job letter
  • Banking details (for electronic funds transfer)  or  
  • Postal address (for delivery of a cheque)
  • A copy of the letter from Public Health mandating isolation or quarantine.

Work permit holders are not entitled to receive the benefits as they should all still receive sick pay as required under the labour law.

The application form can be found in the CNS Library or email stipend@gov.ky.


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Comments (43)

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  1. Anonymous says:

    1st requirement to access this should be proof of vaccination.

  2. Say it like it is. says:

    One thing we should not forget is that all this recent proliferation of community spread was caused by the rules on self isolation being broken. I don’t see this changing under the current regime of “supervision”,therefore, we will continue to see many new cases every week, and the million dollars will need a regular top up.

  3. Anonymous says:

    Lol. If every wp holder left, there would be no one to deliver the world class financial services industry, and the country would go bankrupt.

    • Anonymous says:

      We are not a country.

      You are an arrogant prick.

      Hundreds of foreign nationals are here working with hundreds of equally capable Caymanians to build something special. We will be fine.

  4. Anonymous says:

    This does not take into account the very large number of overseas workers who are taken advantage of appallingly by their ’employers’.

    I am a small business owner. Over the past 3 years, I have employed 3 Jamaican workers(yes, we have Caymanian employees too). Every one of them came to us from a situation where the employee was paying for their own permit(illegal), procuring and paying for their own health insurance(no contribution from the ’employer’-illegal), paying their own pension fully(no contribution from the ’employer’-illegal), going out to find their own work(illegal), and paying their ’employer’ every week from their earnings(that’s right, the employee pays the employer).

    If they are not out working, they are starving. It’s a disgusting practice that has been ignored for far too long.

    It is rampant among the labour market. I have no idea how these so-called ’employers’ even get T&B Licences, let alone have permits approved.

    These workers will not receive any sick leave from their ’employers’. As such, do not expect any of these workers to even take a Covid test, let alone isolate.

    On another note, regarding isolation, this initiative will certainly help out Caymanians, but what about those on permits? We can pay out out an employee’s sick leave if they have to isolate, but this is also not really right, as they are not sick. What will we do should the employee fall sick, but has used up the sick leave in order to isolate? Yet we can not leave that person without income. We paid our employees through the lockdown last year, but it was a real strain on our finances. We won’t be able to do it again. There are so many small businesses in this same situation. So many people assume that everyone who is self-employed is rolling in money, which is not the case at all.

    • Anonymous says:

      Bingo. The Trade and Business licensing authorities do not do their job. Fronting is just the tip of the iceberg. Numerous businesses do not provide health insurance or pensions, including to work permit holders. Nevertheless almost no one gets prosecuted or has their licensing revoked. It is all an outrage. It might even be called Government facilitated corruption.

  5. Anonymous says:

    $1M is not likely to cut it. With the outbreak in schools and vaccinated parents having to quarantine, there are going to be an awful lot of people in quarantine.

    • Anonymous says:

      I can truly appreciate that not everyone wants to hear it, but let’s please all take note that vaccine resistant strains are what are circulating now in late 2021 and efficacy for those with remaining antibodies has plummeted. Get a booster and manage your confidence.

  6. Anonymous says:

    More fundamentally, why shouldn’t employers look after their employees as a part normal corporate responsibility and civic duty? CIG shouldn’t have to intervene, except to officiate that employers are doing the right thing, or pull their T&B. Otherwise we aren’t all bearing the cost of this problem evenly across society, and we are subsidising the millionaire business owners, from public funds we don’t have.

    • Say it like it is. says:

      To be honest far too many employers (a lot of them Caymanian) have blatantly abused the system with regard to work permit fees,health insurance and pensions for many years..It’s a bit like the hundreds of motorists running red lights every day as they are never prosecuted and will therefore continue to do it ad infinitum.

  7. Anonymous says:

    “Work permit holders are not entitled to receive the benefits as they should all still receive sick pay as required by the labour law.”

    Horse shit.

    The Labour Act does not distinguish between Caymanians, Work Permit Holders, and Permanent Residents when it comes to sick pay. Nor does it require sick pay to be paid when persons are not in fact sick.

  8. Anonymous says:

    assuming this applies to vaxxed people only?
    assuming this scheme will be means tested?

  9. So they will says:

    happily screw over a WP holder that can’t work from home.

    They may need to start setting aside provisions for legal settlements as the Covid-19 response is not being applied consistently, fairly or proportionately. This is where government can get itself into trouble.

    If you are taking some people’s income away because they are loosely connected to 3 positive cases at their children’s school but not doing the same to someone who sits next to a positive case at their place of business… this starts to create problems.

    • Hubert says:

      Cayman entitlement when you consider that Caymanians are allowed to remain unvaccinated.

      We are kicking in the head the vaccinated WP holders. Is this really fair?

      • Anonymous says:

        Yes absolutely fair. The Cayman government is taking care of its own citizens. If foreigners would like their government to take care of them, then reach out to their government.

        • Anonymous says:

          8:29, What you fail to grasp is equality under the law. If one was a non citizen working in the UK, America or Canada one would still be treated equally as a laborer.

          You obviously feel entitled as a Caymanian although it is the non citizens who generate the majority of your governments revenue.

          • taylor says:

            Amen!!!!True word! you have to excuse their ignorance many have not had the opportunity to travel, work and lived anywhere else.

  10. Anonymous says:

    Not to beat this dead horse for the millionth time but how is it fair that this does not cover lost wages of wp holders? A wp holder who got vaccinated (which is now law) and did everything they can to protect themselves and their wages should be entitled to the same as the rest. When you consider that Caymanians are allowed to remain unvaccinated and be the more likely vectors for infection how is it possible that only they can have their wages replenished during isolation?

  11. Anonymous says:

    That will last all of two weeks the way they be locking people up.

  12. Anonymous says:

    I am assuming the “self employed” will need to demonstrate that they hold a valid Trade and Business License (without which self employment is unlawful in Cayman).

    • Anonymous says:

      T&BL only required if that business is carrying on a DCI Schedule 1 service or product in the Cayman Islands. Lots of legitimate activities can fall out of scope of that, and some of them are listed on DCI site.

  13. Anonymous says:

    Handout capital of the world.

    • Anonymous says:

      Welcome to the “Nanny State”

    • Anonymous says:

      Tax shelter hideout for the wealthy capital of the world

    • Anonymous says:

      Have you lived in other countries? Have you ever been to Canada or the UK? Those countries give out funding for everything. The Cayman Islands never used to even give funding for low income or unemployed. It forced people to work or for families to take care of their. Vulnerable. Over the years the NAU happened and all of a sudden people are incapable of working. It is still out a developed system like the larger countries. The US gives food stamps and similar but Canada and the UK give out very freely.

      • Anonymous says:

        Unvaccinated Bajans imported by Trinidadians paid for by Caymanians to support Jamaicans. You could not make this shit up.

  14. Anonymous says:

    This should exclude the PR category, which already stipulates that those holding that status own property, and have sufficient financial means to never require this kind of assistance. ie. CIG stipends must have needs-based criteria, or they are open to abuse.

  15. Anonymous says:

    Hold on! Am I missing something? If Work permit holders are not entitled to receive the dole benefits because they should receive sick pay from their employers, then shouldn’t Caymanians unable to continue working due to a positive Covid test and quarantine also receive sick pay from their employers? Can someone with knowledge in this realm please weigh in?

    • Anonymous says:

      Yah bobo i got u.

      Work give them money for sick pay.
      Gov give them money becuase.

      Happy? Need to start buying the votes early.

    • Anonymous says:

      Because it’s not sick pay. You can be healthy but he required by public health to isolate. Most employers do not consider that sick pay.

    • Anonymous says:

      Because this is not your country,

      • Anonymous says:

        Not a country. Probably not yours either.

      • Anonymous says:

        It’s a British overseas territory, not a country.

        • Anonymous says:

          Many Caymanians think we are an independent state. Probably the same people who still are not vaccinated.

          • Anonymous says:

            Caymanians understand perfectly well. People from elsewhere in the Caribbean that we have granted status to are usually the ones that don’t like us being British. They are perfectly willing to watch our Islands be destroyed in the same way that they and their forefathers destroyed their own homelands.

      • Big Bobo In West Bay says:

        I know the school system is poor here but we are not a country. We are an Overseas Terrritory or a colony of Great Britain.

        Hard for you to believe but true.

    • C'Mon Now! says:

      You generally don’t qualify for sick pay when you are under house arrest.

    • Anonymous says:

      You are of course correct. The Law requires equal treatment of all by employers in this context. What you are witnessing is the flagrant disregard for the concept of equal application of law. It may be politically expedient but it is an embarrassment. It is a betrayal of our forefathers, and all that traditional Caymanians stand for.

      Ombudsman? Governor? Auditor General? Is this Good Governance?

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