NIDS to Facilitate Easy Access to Benefits for Persons with Disabilities

Implementation of the National Identification System (NIDS) is expected to facilitate seamless access to benefits for persons with disabilities.

Executive Director of the Jamaica Council for Persons with Disabilities (JCPD), Dr. Christine Hendricks, says the NIDS will allow for the international access sign for persons with disabilities to be placed on it.

She explains that this will enable them “to be identified easier and gain benefits without having to provide numerous documents”.

“Once you have the NIDS card, which will be your national identification card, with that access symbol on it, it will facilitate easy access to benefits outside of the JCPD; because when persons apply for a National Housing Trust (NHT) benefit or any other benefit, they have to get a letter of verification from the JCPD to verify that they are a person with a disability,” she adds.

“However, when the NIDS programme kicks in and the card is available, once they choose to allow for that international access sign to be on it, then they will have greater ease of access to benefits without requiring the numerous documentations,” Dr. Hendricks tells JIS News.

Currently there are more than 46,000 persons with disabilities on the JCPD’s database. However, of that amount, only 15,500 persons are registered with the JCPD.

Dr. Hendricks says persons with disabilities can access benefits from the JCPD once they are registered.

“The registration process is twofold. There is an assessment or medical that is done by a medical professional or clinical psychologist for persons with intellectual disabilities, and the varying professional psychiatrists for those with the different mental disorders or the psychosocial disabilities,” she informs.

For those with physical disabilities, the assessment can be done by a general practitioner or an orthopaedic specialist, depending on the type of disability.

“We do have persons with cerebral palsy who also fall in the category of having a physical disability, although they may have multiple disabilities, depending on how the cerebral palsy manifests. So, once one of those professionals complete the medical form or the assessment form [they] stamp it [and] sign it,” Dr. Hendricks says.

There is also a registration form that persons must complete with their biographic information, such as their name and date of birth.

For the registration interview, individuals will also need a passport size photograph, tax registration number (TRN), National Insurance Scheme (NIS) and National Identification (voter’s ID, birth certificate, passport, or driver’s licence).

The photograph may be verified by a Justice of the Peace, pastor, senior police officer, principal of a school or senior teacher.

“They return with those documents and the process is taken from there at the JCPD. Once it is verified that they have a disability, it goes on our system, in our database and they get a registration number and they are deemed registered,” Dr. Hendricks tells JIS News.

The Executive Director notes that not every person who is registered with the JCPD is currently accessing the services of the Council.

“Not everybody who registers requests a service. The numbers we require are also for national statistics and our reporting to the United Nations, based on our Convention obligations. So, we collect data, but not everybody desires a benefit, but at any point in time a benefit is available,” Dr. Hendricks says.

The benefits range from having a parking sticker for those who are drivers, or they are being driven and would need to park in an accessible parking space.

“Persons can currently access an ID, but that is our paid service. They can access grants enabling them to do a business. [Persons can also] access assistive devices ranging anywhere from glasses, hearing aids, or wheelchair or any other device that persons may need,” Dr. Hendricks says.

“Some require prostheses of different kinds. Those who are employed can benefit from applying for tax exemption or know if they would qualify for income tax exemption under the Income Tax Act. There are the benefits that come with the NHT once they are contributing to the Trust, or they have [a] family member who is their caregiver who is contributing to the Trust, and they can benefit from a grant or a house. The grant can be for retrofitting or any of the other grants that the National Housing Trust offers,” she adds.

There are also back-to-school educational grants for school fees, books, or scholarships.

“Right now, through Digicel Foundation, once they are registered with us, for persons who are blind, visually impaired, hard of hearing, they can get various benefits when they purchase data, or credit for their phone,” Dr. Hendricks says.

“The benefits vary; however, I need to add that although these benefits are there, it is also dependent on our budget, what is available and the number of persons that we have accessing the service during any given year,” she adds.

For those requesting a grant for economic empowerment, an investigation is done by one the JCPD’s social workers to determine whether they can manage the project or not, or if someone is managing it on their behalf.

“There has to be an investigation to determine the feasibility of the project and the ability to manage the project, whether or not it will do them well.

For the scholarships, you must be either entering tertiary-level education or you are there already, maintaining a ‘B’ average and you are able to maintain that B average throughout your tenure,” Dr. Hendricks says.

“So that scholarship of $150,000 is available. But then you have back-to-school benefits that is between May to July. Persons can apply for such benefits. But again, those cash benefits are dependent on the resources that we have available,” she adds.

Regarding transportation, persons with disabilities can present their JCPD-issued ID to the Jamaica Urban Transport Company (JUTC) to verify their disability and will, therefore, pay less on the government-owned transportation.

For further information persons may visit the JCPD website at https://jcpd.gov.jm/.