Social Security Ministry Provides Urgent Help Through Compassionate Assistance Grant

The Ministry of Labour and Social Security has been providing help to persons in need of speedy assistance, through its Compassionate Assistance Grant.

The grant, valued at $75,000, is available to individuals who are unable access assistance under any other scheme, and should not have insurance coverage.

Acting Director for Disaster, Rehabilitation and Welfare Management in the Ministry, Jacqueline Shepherd, told JIS News that the grant is facilitated under the Rehabilitation Programme.

“Under this grant, we give assistance for funerals, in the sense that the persons are not NIS contributors, and they are unable to offset the cost of a funeral. We also give assistance for minor medical procedures or services. We also give assistance to persons to do minor repairs to their houses,” Ms. Shepherd noted.

“We also buy… household items, but it’s household items tied particularly to a social need. We will not go around buying persons television, fridge and those things. A typical example that I normally give is… [this particular person] her son is diabetic and actually she stores the insulin in refrigerator, but she did not have one. She was using her neighbour’s refrigerator, and they had some fallout. So, we supported under a compassionate grant, because it’s tied to a social need that is somewhat medical,” she added.

To apply for the Compassionate Assistance Grant, persons must provide their identification card, Tax Registration Number (TRN) and an invoice from the supplier for the good or service needed, along with other specific documents.

For funeral assistance, the individual should not qualify to get a grant under the National Insurance.

“So, the requirement is that you must provide the death certificate or the burial order, the package that you have chosen from the funeral home in the form of an invoice, your ID and TRN number,” Ms. Shepherd advised.

“As it relates to the medical, you must provide us with some information, whether from the hospital, pharmacy or your doctor, to say you suffer from this medical condition. You provide the invoice, ID and TRN. For the housing…you must provide land tenure documents. We must have proof that you own, have access, or you were given permission to effect repairs or do building on the property and that is needed along with the invoice from the hardware and your ID and TRN,” she added.

Ms. Shepherd stated that for all the grants, the Ministry does not pay to the individual, as the funds are paid to suppliers of goods or services.

She further noted that to have access to these grants, persons can walk into the Ministry’s parish offices, make the application and the social worker investigates, the parish manager and the administrator approve, “and they come into the head office for processing”.

In terms of the processing times, Ms. Shepherd said as soon as an application is made, it is processed as quickly as possible.

“I do not want to tie it to say a time, because there can be mitigating factors that are happening and we need to verify more information… but I assure you, we try to process as quickly as possible and if it is that the person has a dire need, sometimes we can pull them out and give them special priority and treat them as urgent cases,” she pointed out.

Meanwhile, the mother of Sharon Parkinson, a resident of Whitfield Town in Kingston, recently received assistance under the programme.

The move brought her mother much-needed relief, as well as provided her with some semblance of independence.

“I tell them that I would love to get the help for my mom because the bone slip into her back and pressing down on her spine. Them visit to see if it’s true, them see my mom that she is in terrible pain and I get all of the papers to get the stuff them to do her surgery. They see that it urgent and them investigate then them call me and they help me out with the grant,” Ms. Parkinson said.

“She do her surgery and them see that she a wheelchair and she moving on now, but she cannot walk by herself, then them help me need with a walker. Now that walker is making my mother go anywhere she wants to and I thank God for that grant that they give my mother, so she can help herself move along,” she added.

The Ministry’s Rehabilitation Grants Programme provides a range of benefits that include funeral grants, micro-business grants and school assistance for persons in need.