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WE ARE well into the second year of this pandemic and the State has got little better when it comes to devising systems to protect those most in need financially.
If people are tired of covid19, so too is the Government, judging from the same ole, same ole presented on Monday by the Prime Minister when it comes to the social safety net.
Dr Rowley suggested the country should be grateful certain measures remain in place.
The Senior Citizen’s Grant (107,000 people, $4 billion) has not been cut. Disability allowances are being paid (25,000 people, $615 million). Nor have credits to food cards stopped (30,500, $185 million). The PM also said 19,000 people “look to the State for assistance” to the tune of $490 million.
Dr Rowley said unemployment relief had been allocated to those who were retrenched ($237 million), people being processed for grants ($14 million), people needing food vouchers ($7 million) and rental assistance ($22 million).
Going forward, money is yet again to go to religious bodies and the State will, apparently, simply trust that this $10 million will make it to worthy recipients.
About $5 million in food boxes will be provided through the Ministry of Agriculture, and more than $40 million has been reserved for other disbursals.
In other words, the approach remains piecemeal, uninspired and likely to be subject to allegations of waste and abuse.
Few lessons have been learned from last year, when measures were accompanied by all sorts of problems. Some people are still waiting for grants they asked for months ago.
It is not as though the Government has been caught by surprise by the current predicament of the population. It has constantly reminded the country that it cannot afford another lockdown and implored compliance.
In the process, the State has shifted the burden of its economic management to the governed, at a moment when the population is most vulnerable. This is a reversal of the social contract.
The Cabinet has had a year to refine and reorganise its approach. Knowing that funds are running short, it has had a great deal of time to arrange alternative sources of financing.
It has also had time to examine how its systems worked in 2020 and to come up with bolder approaches that would not only help the most vulnerable but also stimulate the economy.
The Government’s narrative is rightly focused on keeping people alive. On Monday, the PM put things starkly when he noted tighter restrictions will harm the economy, but at least people will live another day to complain.
But financial aid has a role to play in guaranteeing our survival: covid19 is more likely to spread in situations in which people are economically vulnerable. More attention should have been paid to that.
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