Vuniwaqa explains bus fare allocation reduction
Minister for Women, Children and Poverty Alleviation Mereseini Vuniwaqa hopes members of the Opposition would have the same understanding as the recipients affected by the deduction in bus fare allowance.
Mrs Vuniwaqa was responding to a question by Opposition Member of Parliament Ratu Antonio Lalabalavu on the reduction of the Social Welfare Bus Subsistence to $10 a month. She said it was abnormal times and COVID-19 has affected people and the nation in a way never ever imagined prior to the outbreak.
“Thousands of people have lost their jobs, struggling to just put food on the table and allocating funds during a National Budget is not an easy exercise; in the context of COVID, that exercise becomes even more challenging,” Mrs Vuniwaqa said. “So Government during an exercise of allocating money has to consider every sector of the economy to look after the livelihoods of Fijians,” she said.
Mrs Vuniwaqa said Government currently assists around 82 600 elderly citizens under the bus fare assistance for $10 a month. “Out of this 82, 600 the average usage per month is about 52 000, around 30 000 elderly citizens although have a card do not use it.” She said apart from bus fare assistance, Government also assists the elderly through the Social Pension Scheme for those who never had an access to superannuation. “We allocate $55 million on social pension alone for the elderly who have never received any other form of pension.
“This is the highest allocation of all the Social Protection Programmes under the Department of Social Welfare and the budget allocation for Social Pension Scheme (SPS) in this fiscal year is the highest ever for the programme, increasing from $2m in 2015 to over $55m now.”
She said the SPS budget in the year 2019/2020 is $46 million and had increased to $55 million in this fiscal year.
“That increase ensured that all those who were eligible for social pension did get social pension.
“That allowance which puts food on the table, allows the elderly to contribute to the livelihoods of their loved ones, and hasn’t been touched.