Welfare overhaul won’t be easy, warns minister
(CNS): The Cayman Islands Government is preparing for the implementation of new laws governing welfare support next month, including the transition of the Needs Assessment Unit into the Department of Financial Assistance. However, Social Development Minister André Ebanks has warned that it will take time for the changes to have an impact and it “won’t be easy”. Nevertheless, they “must be done”.
Initially, the focus will be on those receiving assistance who are deemed able-bodied — about one-third of the current NAU clients — who, in future, will have conditions attached to their benefits.
Speaking to the local press Monday evening ahead of a community meeting in his West Bay constituency, Ebanks said he wants to create a more transparent welfare system where the criteria are clear and applications are assessed using technology. This will remove political connections to welfare distribution and ensure a fair, uniform system not subject to human bias, he said.
While the minister warned it might take time to get things right, he said it was time to start the rollout of the new system. As the new department collects more data and learns more about the complex needs of those families receiving welfare, it is expected that things will gradually improve.
“The current system is not working well enough for anybody,” Ebanks said as he stressed the need to transition to the new system and commence the new legislation.
He outlined the goals of this long-awaited overhaul some six decades after the last changes to the poorly named Poor Relief Law and stressed that only resident Caymanians are entitled to receive financial assistance, which is established in the law.
Since the new law was passed one year ago, ministry officials have been drafting the regulations and reshaping the NAU to create a department that will help those who are able to work to join, or rejoin, the workforce by removing barriers and providing practical support, such as childcare, transport and access to technology.
But in turn, this group of indigent people, many of whom are vulnerable, struggling with complex needs, trauma, mental health problems, learning difficulties and other challenges, will now be required to contribute to the community in exchange for the CI$1,250 per month that they receive.
Ebanks said that payments will not stop for anyone who has been cleared to receive long-term assistance, but when their annual review is due, the new laws and regulations will take effect. Currently, around 1,500 families receive some form of long-term support from the NAU. The most significant impact for able-bodied recipients is that they will be required to do something for the cash they get from the government.
Younger, healthier recipients will be helped into training, education, internship, apprenticeships or volunteering to help them move towards finding work and, ultimately, off government assistance and into self-sufficiency. This won’t happen overnight, officials said, so welfare recipients will still be assisted, but with the conditions. If they fail to meet them, eventually, their payments will be stopped.
The definition of households is also changing, allowing multi-generational families living together to apply separately. This will impact all those receiving assistance, including the disabled and the elderly, and means that elderly parents living with working family members or single parents living with working grandparents will no longer be judged on the whole family’s income.
The government is also introducing additional payments to cover accommodation, including one-off rental deposits to help people find a home, and people can apply for help with mortgages in some instances. The new regime has been designed to meet the immediate needs of everyone who finds themselves falling on hard times but also to transition people into an independent life, officials explained.
There is also a new one-month emergency payment that can go immediately to applicants who face domestic violence, a disaster, significant risk of harm or are in need of urgent aid. But Ebanks said that going to government for help should be the last resort for those who are capable of working.
For the elderly and disabled, whose conditions are unlikely to change, there will be less need to keep proving their circumstances. However, elderly people with significant savings, not including equity in their homes, will not receive assistance until those savings are consumed.
“We have to be able to take care of those in need now, in the first instance,” Ebanks said, adding that people who have savings will, of course, eventually become indigent, but giving public cash to those who have money in the bank when others have nothing at all is not a fair deal for public resources.
The bulk of the welfare budget, which is expected to begin at around CI$15 million next year, will still go to the elderly and disabled, but Ebanks said it was important for people to understand that financial assistance is not a pension and the problem of inadequate pensions is an area that government will need to tackle separately.
Active pensioners or those with only limited disabilities who receive support and would like to work can also seek help from the new department to find placements or take up voluntary work if they choose. However, it is very unlikely there will be any conditions attached to their monthly payments or other help they may receive.
See the information charts supplied by the ministry below:
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what a WELFARE Islands this has become and more and more each day getting PR don’t have a job and have their dependants relaying on the government. If something soon not done with the PR/Status our Islands is going to be worse that any 3rd Island. When we had Politicians like Mr. Jim Bodden,Mr Haig Bodden and those gentlemen to name a few it was so much better than these so called educated Politicians and they turning this place into a welfare place. How can a person get PR, don’t own property, don’t have any money, don’t have a decent job, and have multiple children depending on him/her? This not for the Caymanians it for those they making Caymanians. Wake up true CAYMANIANS and take out Islands back. Demand change and demand it now!
The MP’s will control the narrative here through the Financial Assistance Appeals Tribunal Board that has to decide. Hold on tight, time will tell 🙂
ALL this is because Politicians refused to define and recognize the few remaining NATIVE Caymanians, who were the rightful beneficiaries of the Jobs, scholarships, medical etc.
We were sold out. Horse is out the gate
Is there any confirmation for the $1250 (seamen , veterans Poor Relief) assistance to be uplifted to $1500? Is there any confirmation that $950 pensioners to be uplifted to $1500. I contacted the Pension Board and was told they had no confirmation as yet, or is just something floating around. What is the true position? We all need to know asap. Can the Government make an official statement to the effect, don’t keep us in the dark.
No.
This sham government is extremely dangerous and will bankrupt the country if allowed to continue. Heard it here first.
Define “Caymanian”.
No such thing. You mean “BOTC”.
No. They are very different things.
No. Thousands of BOTC’s are NOT Caymanian. Thousands of Caymanians are NOT BOTC’s.
One additional thing that should be included somewhere. FREE BIRTH CONTROL (CONDOMS).
Sorry, single use plastic ban.
I am a 65 able bodied Caymanian, no health issues, take one or two sick days a year, have good performance but my employer says he is retiring me because of my age. No doubt to be replaced by a permit holder. I have never ask govt. for a handout. I want to work, why can’t I? Now I will have to try and live on a pension of $14k a month so my only choice (unless someone will employ me) is to sell up and leave my own country.
Assume you meant pension of $14K per year
Yes 14k a year
Thank you for posting, exactly the same and savings do not last long. Other countries, particularly UK, are encouraging and employees hiring people who are into their 80’s. Wake up Cayman, politicians get to grip with the present world and not your own small world. Why is McKeewa still allowed to work?
Not to mention the decrease in pensions over past couple of years not only due to world circumstances but also due to bad management.
Just guessing, but perhaps the cost of providing you with health insurance once 65 irrespective of your medical history is a factor.
Force CIG to hire Caymanians only. Problem solved.
They pretty much have to do this already 3:22. All the inferior candidates the private sector rejects government takes on because they are Caymanians.
True dat @ 8:12. Like the Chief HR officer in a ministry who used to work for government, left for the private sector was fired by two banks and a utilities company and hired back by government on the advice of the mother of a very senior civil servant who used to employ her. Next step will be a Franzies award.
How’s those Caymanian politicians working out for you?
Plenty of jobs for Caymanians
DEH needs more garbage collectors.Education needs teachers,HMP needs more screws, the list goes on.
Why don’t they? I get that there are probably a very small number of jobs that require a very specific skill set where maybe we need outside help but the number of essentially admin “wp” workers in CIG is ridiculous.
But if course. The Spevial Advisors and other vague titles of engrained Newbies whoare now looking out for their own.
our own heroes set us up, now complain as grinning foxes are in control.
More pirates than a Flynn flick Ja know
3.22pm When will you and others admit that most “Caymanians” are now from Jamaica and they benefit no matter what is done for natives. Until there is Constitutional ammendment then nothing will be solved and real Caymanians will still suffer.
What Amendment would you like??
The “No Welfare. No Wote.” lobby is much larger than the “No Weed. No Wote.” lobby.
Suspect there is quite a lot of overlap!
I can’t recall there being a NAU prior to the 2003 status grants. I recall assistance being available for seafarers and the elderly. Family, friends and charitable organizations would care for people in need due to illness and death in the family. But I cannot recall government assistance for able bodied, able minded people of working age. This idea of living off the government was imported when many of those 2003 status recipients brought their relatives to live in Cayman. Before the status grants, there was a lot of talk about these recipients deserving to be granted status. There was very little discussion, if any, about whether or not they could AFFORD to live in Cayman. You take a number of people with very little education, having worked as helpers and handymen most of their lives, earning CI and sending that money home to their families where the currency exchange meant that money went a long way. You give them status and they bring their families over and then realize they cannot afford to support them here. Viola. NAU. Well done Mac. Well done.
Your memory is very very poor 2:56. Or maybe it’s just biased. The wonderful kumbaya we Caymanians all help each other world you remember was long gone before 2003…..if it ever existed.
Nope. This 4th gen Caymanian’s memory is quite clear.
If you’re closed off to the kindness of others, or if you’re not kind yourself, you’re the one who is missing out.
To be fair giving status, aka the right to vote to people you know will be dependent on you being in power, has worked out very well for a number of our MPs and convicted criminals.
Minimum wage $6 x 40 hrs a week x 4 weeks a month = $960. NAU assistance = $1250 a month. Anyone see the problem with envoy those on assistance to get a job ?
Mic drop!
Although this sounds good in theory, the devil in the detail. At he moment they are no table to manage the basic programme they have. they brought a bunch of consultants in to develop this programme, but when the rubber hits the road, I fear it will be a disaster. Again, it will rely on the private sector to take on these “volunteers” into their place of business. There is a certain segment of any population who simply doesn’t want to work and they will throw up all kinds of roadblocks to ensure they don’t get a job. Good luck with your feel-good programme Andre, but stop wasting our money.
Well done Andre – good luck with this. Our Caymanian
People deserve a dignified solution and while never perfect this sounds like a sensible move in the right direction. Now let’s get the Children’s Law updated to prioritize and protect our vulnerable children.
Only one member of the household need be Caymanian. So a recent status recipient can bring in their outside children from all over the world, and their parents and grandchildren, and their unemployed spouse, and the Caymanian people must pay for everything.
Great plan Cayman.
Anyone notice this is NOT going to work out for the Caymanian people?
If there is a single foreign national here requiring government assistance, the Department of WORC and CBC had better be able to provide a detailed explanation as to why there are exceptional circumstances that warrant their right to enter and their ability to remain here.
Once current recipients start squawking to their elected MLA about losing benefits this whole plan will die out.
Will be lucky finding work if able bodied older person if just getting trained and no experience – older, qualified and experienced, employers just laugh!
More money will be spent in 2023, more than that in 2024.
All talk, plenty of rules/regulations, but with virtually no investigative powers, no enforcement of the maintenance law and a double standard of keeping people on NAU assistance while working on the Brac cleanup crew – the Minister is living in lala land.
As long as you have politicians, directives will be made to assist certain persons – that will not change.
exactly
1. Stop importing poverty
2. Stop importing poverty.
3. Stop importing poverty.
4. Enforce the Maintenance Act.
5. Fix minimum wage.
Do those 5 things and the problem will be solved.
And all the while trying to portray and believing it in the politicians small mindd to be ‘exclusive’ and ‘paradise’ LOL
much of this makes sense. HOPING for the best.
A lot of it does, yes. This system is similar to UK’s.
What I don’t agree with is that the elderly who are barely making ends meet should still get some help even if it’s less than the amount now given. Elderly don’t need additional stress. And we have to realize that pension was put in place very late in time so majority of them do not have pension nor savings. Family members of these elderly persons ate probably struggling as well and unable to help. I know of several elderly persons who were cut off because what they stated for income and expenditure were almost equal which is definitely not fair.
God bless the elderly persons of the Cayman Islands.
Able bodied but not able minded. Aside from the genuine need for those with actual physical and/or mental health, if this gets one scrounger off the govt payroll, it’s great.
We have way too many ‘can work, won’t work’ idiots.
As for how this will go… I’m not holding my breath.
bring in strict means testing that can be regularly audited. end of story.