Budget under pressure from those in need
(CNS): The Cayman Islands Government has agreed to look at increasing the ex gratia pension paid to retired civil servants, though Social Development Minister André Ebanks warned that this might be very difficult, given the budget constraints caused by the recent increase in long-term financial assistance payments. These stipends were recently increased from CI$950 to CI$1,250, but the opposition has called for them to be increased further because of the cost of living crisis.
Speaking in parliament last month, Ebanks explained that many of those on long-term help receive additional benefits on top of the regular monthly payment. The Needs Assessment Unit currently has 1,162 clients as well as 898 seafarers and 43 veterans who all receive long-term benefits — 2,103 in total at the last count.
Responding to a private member’s motion brought by Sir Alden McLaughlin (RED), Ebanks said that if the increase was implemented as requested for these people, it would add CI$6.3 million to the existing budget on top of the recent increase in the payments. However, he also noted that people who are still struggling can get additional benefits.
The minister said that these were the “realities that we have to grapple with” at the Department of Children and Family Services and at the NAU, as he described some of the difficult judgment calls that had to be made.
In some cases, the need is not just a result of inflation but of very complex social situations, Ebanks said. Some elderly people are not being treated well by their relatives, who are manipulating them and getting access to their funding and using it for vacations, he explained. In some cases, very elderly seafarers have much younger spouses who were not working and living off their partner’s benefits even though they are more than able to work, and some people receiving the payments have significant savings, he noted.
Around one-third of those getting financial help are not disabled, elderly or veterans but are unemployed or outside the workforce. Ebanks said the government is working to reduce the size of this group and get them into work. If they help those who are able to work get over common barriers, such as child care or transportation problems, the money that would be paid to them can be redirected to the elderly and disabled, he explained.
Ebanks said a pilot programme with six single mothers had been a great success; with the support provided, at least four of them had found, and were still in, well-paid work. He said his ministry was trying to budget more programmes like that to get people into work and find private sector partners willing to give people placement and training while the government pays them.
Ebanks added that he wanted the government to be the last resort for people in need. It was better to use public money to get people into work, so that would need to be budgeted for in the government’s spending plan for 2024/25, as well as the actual payments.
Another issue was the requirement for transitional housing for those who have nothing and who are homeless. Ebanks noted that this was a growing problem, and helping those people would also “need some budget behind it”.
“I am not advocating… that we should not try to find the uplift for civil servants… and not saying we shouldn’t consider $1,500” for other indigents, he said, but if it can’t get that high, money will still be in the budget to get more people in need into work.
Once the financial assistance legislation is in place, he said, the ministry needed to motivate people to do something of value for the community in exchange for the money they reveive from the government and transition into the formal economy.
He said raising long-term financial assistance outside the context of the plans for social development might not be the best use of resources because there were factors at play beyond the cost of living, he said.
Premier Wayne Panton said that, that given the situation over the last two years, it was not surprising that MPs want to assist, but the priority was to give to those who were elderly and vulnerable. However, he confirmed that the government planned to give former public servants the increase by the start of next year.
McLaughlin noted that since 2021, the cost of living had increased by more than 25%. He welcomed the government’s broad support to help those in need but said the heart of the issue was the amount the elderly and vulnerable were getting. The former premier, who has previously held the social affairs ministry, also warned about the CIG’s growing future obligations regarding those in need.
“The issue, pure and simple when you boil it down, is this: can anyone in this country be expected to live decently on $1,250 a month? That’s the question,” he said. “We have massive challenges I have talked about for years… There is a whole new generation of people for whom, even if they are working now and making pension contributions, the pension they are going to get at the end is going to be inadequate to look after them.”
He said those retirees would also be faced with health insurance premiums that they cannot afford. “Those two areas, pensions and health cover, have got to be grappled with,” he added and warned that the number of people in need now was small compared to what was going to happen in another ten years.
“For the younger members of this House who have the ambition of remaining here in the longer term, they will have massive, massive problems to grapple with. So we might as well, when we have a billion dollar budget… start thinking about priorities.”
He asked what MPs are doing everything else for if the average person cannot even feed themselves, and said they had to do everything they could to help those who need help. “This we have to do,” he added.
During the course of the debate, Tourism Minister Kenneth Bryan (GTC) pointed to the increasing population, which is growing because of immigration and the constant creation of new Caymanians. He said the system wasn’t working, which was why he had put up the billboards calling for immigration reform, and all the MPs were well aware that the people want the growth to slow down.
Bryan noted that Cayman’s economy and government revenue was largely based on consumption. If Cayman stops developing, duties and fees would decrease and there would be no money for helping the elderly in the future, Bryan said, as he described the well-known conundrum and the vicious circle of a consumption-based economy fuelling unsustainable growth that the local population doesn’t want.
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“Once the financial assistance legislation is in place, he said, the ministry needed to motivate people to do something of value for the community in exchange for the money they reveive from the government and transition into the formal economy.”
Good luck with that!
The budget is just fine, look at all the new vehicles being purchased by government for the exclusive use of employees. They even get to take them home and use for personal business .
Ofreg salaries =plus $200k and an SUV for private use so why are we worrying about not having enough money.
free solution: means testing.
too many receiving handouts that have millions of dollars of land/property assets.
Budget under pressure from those at the trough.
Well said Mr. Andre….well said buddy.
Fyi: many public workers are paid less than 3000$ month for hard daily full time government work!
Shame!
4.48am Garbage collectors for example,they work harder than any other civil servant!.
Easy, just require the young wives to pick up trash to be eligible.
Corruption is rampant.
you can get anything expedited or done in government with cash payoffs.
From top to bottom.
eg. Food voucher program kickbacks monthly to the “approving” officer. No police prosecution of their own. Language tests. Immigration applications. Education prejudicial teaching. Not to mention multi standards of Healthcare.
I can prove it.
and these at the bottom levels are not even as bad as the grants, contracts and Concessions at the top.
obvious.
same thing is raging in private sector. Fake permits for indentured modern slave owners. see trafficking etc.
zero law enforcement especially in district stations, mostly lazy ignorant people in uniforms.
Worse is that most are imported.
Veterans and Poor Relief Assistances was uplifted to $1250. The $950 pensioners did not any upliftment. So now, the pensioners should deservedly get their $950 uplifted to $1250/$1500. We deserve it, we worked our backsides off in Govt and rightly deserves it. The $950 is hard to live off in these times. Now we have to wait till the 1/1/24. Pensioners are hurting and this is not a handout, we put in our time and made an indelible mark in the Govt. Have a heart for us!
Ask our government to take some of the millions they’re paying to the consultants for the new Northward resort to make our criminals more comfortable .
It seems that PACT is putting the comforts of criminals, before the well-being of its veterans.
MPs cut their pay. Simple.
Imagine the resident clowns in charge saying we should increase payments to old men because their dirt bag relatives and spouses are taking advantage of them.
I’d love to see how many f**** seafarers we even have left. Proper ones. Not just hanging on the back of the coattails of someone else.
Same with veterans! Veterans for who? The UK? That would be fine. The US? Honduras? Jamaica? Not so much
Pay for the seamen but don’t pay for the new wives or we will never see the end of those payments. All these young women preying on these old men. Waiting and praying they die quick so they can inherit a lifetime of health insurance, monthly pension and whatever else the old seaman owned. I care about the govt funding these women who should not be receiving the money. They were not around when the men were out to sea. They did not assist the Cayman Islands in any fashion. They should not be entitled to the money. It should stop with wives who were married to the seamen at the time they were at sea. Any future or subsequent wives get nothing from the government.
Curtailing that alone will help the governments budget.
Perhaps if so much wasn’t just poured down the drain…
How is it possible persons receiving benefits from NAU are status grant holders? Was informed through a source that not long after receiving status would quit their job, start collecting handouts from NAU (ci gov) and have their businesses running back in their original home Country same time, Its a disgrace to know this is happening.
i have a dream,,,that one day cig will implement just one recommendation of miller shaw or e&y reports.
i have a dream….that one day cig will announce plans curb uncontrolled spending and expansion of the civil service.
i have a dream…..that one day cig will take measure to stop welfare fraud in these islands
i have a dream…..that one day cig will prosecute those who commit welfare fraud in these islands
Budget is mostly under pressure from a failing immigration regime!
Stop facilitating the mass importation of poverty!
Poverty, and poor people, are unhelpful terms. They incorrectly suggest that the individuals are blameless.
Everything is caused by individual behaviour.
These people are “unproductive”. We should be rid of them, not subsidising and propagating them.
KB needs to just stop for a second and think. In theory an increase in population leads to the ability to spread certain costs which do not scale linearly with population over a larger number of consumers.
The PERFECT example is the total cost of our MPs. We’ve had the same number of them for a very long time and if they kept their salaries fixed for a heartbeat then the burden per taxpayer would be reduced as taxpayers increase. This would lead to more funds available for costs that do scale with population such as teachers, police, etc.
The problem is that this and all previous governments keep taking all the increases in revenue from increased consumption and they spend it on things they shouldn’t, primarily those very same costs which are supposed to be spread out.
They gave all the MPs raises. They keep hiring and promoting Chief Officers and Deputy Chief Officers and Directors and Deputy directors and Board Members and on and on it goes and before you know it, all that “extra” money is spent and there’s nothing left for those that need it.
It’s also incorrect to say that the public doesn’t want growth or development. I bet all members of the public that are well employed and well paid are thankful that the companies that hired them can afford to do so and are going to continue healthy growth for the foreseeable future. Again the problem is the government hasn’t planned to keep up with infrastructure. The roads aren’t there (and are built slower than molasses). Garbage can’t be handled. Not enough schools. All of those are failures of the government, not the fault of private industry growth.
Most importantly, the only reason Kenny doesn’t like the creation of “New Caymanians” is because he knows plenty of them will not vote to elect him, full stop.
Look at what Kenny’s Port authority friends are paying themselves.
Giving the civil service pensioners an increase is all well and good but what about the rest of us on private pensions trying to live on $1200 per month who get nothing from government. I went around the island twice in a boat can I get a seaman’s pension too.
Just make sure that none of these ex civil servants getting an increase were not those former expats who got contracted officers supplement on top of their salary instead of pension rights until the Gold Rush in 2003 and which they were supposed to save or invest for their old age but many spent it like drunken sailors and are now complaining about how small their pension is.
We have too much revenue so successive gov’ts have created a system that wastes funds and also diverts funds to special projects and supporters.
Heaven helps us if we ever have to tighten our belts really quickly.
The money given by the NAU now is more than the pension received by some civil servant retirees! Anything missing here?! Wake up, put more elegible caymanians in jobs, decrease foreign workers. I personally know of able bodied persons who can work but living off funds from NAU. Una locura!
Shortsighted at best!!
You do know work permits pays for NAU payments. You cannot cut off your left hand to help your right hand.
The issue is developing new avenues of income. Not just cutting stuff. And by that I do not mean taxing us directly or indirectly
We need to think outside the box now at what can we do in Cayman to attract either investment or tourism.
Three solutions.
1..Serious means test
2..Serious contraception.
3..Serious drugs testing.
That should Weed out the Numbers.
Why don’t Sir Alden, Old Roy, Sweet Joey, Calculator Chris & full moon Jon-Jon just form a big give away fund from all their personal funds to help all the down and out people.
May as well add Santa Claus McKeeva to the list!
Handout capital of the world
#welfarestate
UAE would like to have a word.
UAE has oil.
We have the goodwill of a highly mobile industry, and sunshine.
Top of the Hand out list currently , the consultants for our new $100,000,000. Prison.
Invoicing their several million fees while law abiding citizens struggle.
Cancel this unwarranted waste of public funds being paid to foreigners.
House foreign Prisoners in the Brac to help stimulate that Island’s economy. Keep local prisoners at Northward. Once the foreigners are gone – Northward will have capacity for years to come.
Better still , send foreign prisoners by arrangement , to serve in their homelands.
We’re already paying millions to look after foreigner criminals, and incredibly planning a world class “prison” resort so they will be more comfortable here.
Have our government lost their effing minds…?
Stop it now Pact, stop the wasteful spending now.
You know the population of Northwood is overwhelmingly Caymanian, right?
The “Caymanians” in Northward are Jamaican fathered , but born here. They are only Caymanian by virtue of place of birth, not heritage.
So, er, Caymanian nonetheless, 12:24, just like generations ago Caymanians were Irish, Scottish, English,African fathered and mothered, “not heritage”.
AND Jamaican! Hell, even many of the Caymanians are Jamaican.
Paper caymanians
Right, paper indeed, but CAYMANIANS in every legal respect.
With status capable of revocation, and their asses capable of deportation, if anyone followed laws around here.
Following the laws is inconvenient for some of our Jamaican dependent politicians.
That was suggested some time ago, Brakkas were against that.
Even if it was to happen…NIMBY would take over.
We don’t want your criminals. We have enough running to Cayman Brac already.
Like the one who illegally paved private driveways?