Cash transfers popular with public
THE National Social Protection Council (NSPC) has determined that the government’s two cash assistance programmes met with the approval of over 97 per cent of the recipients. To date, the government has spent nearly $1.3 billion on the programmes.
A recent joint assessment of the programmes by the NSPC and the UN
Development Programme (UNDP) found that they have made an important contribution to minimising negative impacts on at-risk households.
One of the programmes – cash assistance for poor and at-risk households affected by Covid-19 – kicked off in June of 2020 and has continued to the present day. The programme has eased the burdens of about 700,000 households, consisting of 2.8 million people. The government earmarked a total of $1,243.75 million to the programme.
The other, aimed at relieving inflationary pressures and supporting the victims of floods, ran from 2022 and concluded in July this year. About $55.7 million was transferred to around 500,000 households, representing about 1.8 million individuals.
“Our study found that the beneficiaries of the programmes spent the cash on food, health services and medicine, their children’s school fees, water and electricity bills, rented houses and other expenditures,” said the NSPC.
It added that the overall result of the two programmes was an improvement in the livelihoods of the families. The programmes had reduced food insecurity rates among the recipients by 13 per cent, while decreasing the number of families with no savings by 7.5 per cent, and the families who were slow to pay back loans by 2.4 per cent.
According to the report, the number of target households who could not afford to pay for water, electricity and rent was 13 per cent lower than the number of non-subsidised households. The same comparison stood at 27 per cent when it came to healthcare expenditure.
“The outcome of this assessment showed that almost 100 per cent of the target households, especially at-risk families, appreciated the efforts of the government and local authorities. The transfers also boosted the trust of people in the government,” added the NSPC.
Yang Kim Eng, president of the People’s Centre for Development and Peace, acknowledged that these programmes had eased the burdens of many families.
“Despite providing a relatively small amount of money, the programmes helped them to reduce their spending. The programmes didn’t improve the livelihoods of most people, but prevented them from falling into a very hard situation,” he added.
However, there remain some challenges, with the study determining that the understanding of the programmes remained limited among some at-risk families while a small number of the target families encountered problems of payments when Wing Bank counters were far from their homes.