Over 40,000 families hit by Covid set to receive cash benefit in June
MORE than 40,000 families have been identified as eligible to receive the post-lockdown social assistance cash for families having income problems, Covid-19 infection families and families with Covid-19 deaths.
Chhour Sopanha, director of the social welfare department under the Ministry of Social Affairs, Veteran, and Youth Rehabilitation’s said on May 25 that the identification process was not yet complete but that he had received preliminary figures counting more than 40,000 families.
“We have received preliminary figures as of May 24 that there are more than 40,000 families. We have updated the three locations: all 14 districts in Phnom Penh, Kandal province’s Takmao town and Preah Sihanouk province’s Preah Sihanouk town.
Sopanha added that the calculation of the budget for the families identified in the social assistance program has already been estimated and at this stage the ministry is waiting to collect data on affected families.
The team will then calculate the rates according to the three categories – families with livelihood difficulties, Covid-19 infected families and families with deaths due to Covid-19.
“We will set a time to close the data collection. When it is closed, we will use this data to set up procedures to provide cash to them,” he said.
The government issued a decision on May 11 about the implementation of social assistance in cash to be provided post-lockdown.
This assistance will be given to poor people who were affected by the large-scale lockdown. The decision
also determined the amount of money to be given to each family.
For example, the government decided that the families who had a member die of Covid-19 would receive 300,000 riel along with further assistance to pay for electricity and
water for five months.
The National Council for Social Security Fund issued the procedures on how this assistance will be provided and the cash assistance programme will kick off in the first week of June.