Christmas jackpot
Approximately 50,000 Jamaicans to get big BEST and SET Cash payments this month
IT could be a bright Christmas for 50,000 Jamaicans who lost their jobs due to the novel coronavirus pandemic and who qualify for grants under the Government’s Business Employee Support and Transfer of Cash (BEST Cash) and Supporting Employees with Transfer of Cash (SET Cash) programmes.
Minister of Finance Dr Nigel Clarke yesterday told a media briefing that many of the people who qualify for BEST and SET cash grants over the period September to November and have not yet been paid will get their money before Christmas.
They will get approximately $54,000 each, at $18,000 for each month that they weren’t paid, costing the Government approximately $2.7 billion.
“We extended the SET Cash and BEST Cash programmes for the months of September, October, November, and December. The payments for these months, I believe, as of today [yesterday], have not yet been made, but I have been assured that the processing will be completed for all of those payments to be made in December.
“So it is likely that those people who are on the SET Cash and BEST Cash programmes will get [paid], and it will be a good December for them,” Clarke told journalists at his National Heroes’ Circle office.
BEST Cash provides temporary money transfer to registered businesses operating in the tourism industry, based on the number of workers they keep employed, while SET Cash provides money to individuals who were earning $1.5 million or less, where it can be verified that they lost their employment since the date of the first COVID-19 case in Jamaica.
He noted that when the Government first launched the COVID-19 subsidies, they were intended to be in place for three months — April to June.
“We then extended them for a further two months, July and August, and in the presentation of the Supplementary Estimates we made provisions to extend them for four months… and that again speaks to the ability the Government has shown to help cushion the impact of the crisis with support that, by the time December is over, would have lasted for nine months,” noted Clarke.
“Never before has the Government of Jamaica been able to respond to a crisis in this way, with such a largescale social intervention,” added Clarke, as he underscored that 435,000 people have benefited from the different social and economic support programmes introduced since the onset of the pandemic.
The finance minister also pointed out that the individuals who qualify for benefits are verified through an automated process to ensure its veracity.
The Auditor General’s Department (AGD) recently indicated that it was satisfied that there was compliance with the requirements relating to BEST Cash, as an audit it conducted did not identify any unresolved material discrepancies, Clarke said
But the Pamela Monroe Ellisled AGD noted that, with respect to tourism sector workers, the responsible agency/ministry did not conduct the requisite due diligence to provide reasonable assurance that the schedule of names provided in respect of red cap porters, golf caddies, independent tour guides, and some entertainment practitioners was reliable and contained only legitimate practitioners.
The AGD said the names of people in the three tourism-related occupations and some entertainment practitioners were provided by external third party associations, and that a review of the relevant controls at these entities to provide reasonable assurance that the information provided was legitimate was not done.