By Admin. Updated 5:55 a.m., Wednesday, January 11, 2023, Atlantic Standard Time (GMT-4).
Individuals who benefit from the government’s public assistance program could soon be receiving payments via reloadable ATM cards instead of raw cash.
According to a release from the Social Protection Division within the Ministry of National Mobilisation, the Ministry is currently undergoing the implementation of the Poor Relief Beneficiary assessments and transitioning to the reloadable ATM card payments for 2023.
The move, however, will come after the government completes an assessment of the existing beneficiaries of public assistance and their households.
“The Ministry is in the process of conducting the Socio-economic Household assessments (for existing beneficiaries and their households) and vulnerability assessments on existing beneficiaries during the period 8th December, 2022 to 24thFebruary 2023,” the release stated.
“The general public is therefore asked to take note and to be prepared to share with the assessors the personal information being requested to ensure the process is completed efficiently and honestly, as the Ministry seeks to serve the general population more effectively,” the release added.
The ministry said in the release that, “The transitioning would ensure that recipients who are eligible would no longer be required to line up for cash payments, but will have the ability to access their monies at their conveniencevia the reloadable ATM cards.”
The announcement of the planned move follows a series of steps taken by the government in its trust to move towards digitization.
Beneficiaries of volcano assistance have received their payments through reloadable bank cards. After that, workers employed in the road cleaning programs have also started receiving payments via debit card.
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