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Saint Lucia To Roll Out Another Post COVID-19 Income Support Programme

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The rollout of the Government of Saint Lucia’s latest Income Support Programme (ISP) 2023, under the Safety Nets for Vulnerable Populations Affected by the Coronavirus Project is set to begin.

Spearheaded by the Ministry of Equity, Social Justice and Empowerment, the project is financed by the Inter-American Development Bank (IDB) and administered through the Caribbean Development Bank (CDB).

The main aim of the Income Support Programme is to provide much-needed financial
assistance to households/persons from the informal sector who continue to experience the
lingering challenges of COVID-19 but did not benefit from any cash transfer programs.

The set criteria take into consideration:

A. Non-NIC Contributors who:
1. lost their source of income because of COVID-19, or
2. became unemployed or momentarily received no salary because of prolonged illness
due to COVID-19, and
3. did not benefit from any previous COVID-19 support programs i.e., Economic Relief
Programme (ERP) or Income Support Programme (ISP) in 2020.

B. Households applying on behalf of a child/ward aged 12 and under whose parent/guardian’s demise was deemed a Covid-19 death or Covid-19-related death.

The Income Support Programme 2023 underscores the government’s commitment to ensuring that no one is left behind as we navigate the aftermath of the pandemic.

This programme is a testament to the Ministry’s mandate of ensuring the overall welfare of our citizens notes the Permanent Secretary attached to the Ministry of Equity, Social Justice and Empowerment Dr. Charmaine Hipployte-Emmanuel.

For Criterion A:1, applicants must upload a letter of redundancy or any other proof of income loss or redundancy due to COVID-19.

For Criteria A:2, applicants must upload a medical certificate or a letter from a doctor stating illness due to COVID-19.

For Criterion B, applicants must upload the birth certificate of the child or children and the death certificate of the parent or guardian who died due to COVID-19 as well as means of verification of guardianship or parenthood.

Eligible applicants will receive a one-time payment of $1500 per household.  The rollout for the Income Support Programme 2023 begins September 13 and will run for 6 weeks.

To apply, visit https://www.cognitoforms.com/GITS1/GOSLIS2. The deadline for submission of completed application forms is October 30, 2023.

Communication on this subject 4th Floor Greaham Louisy Administrative Building
should be address to: Waterfront, Castries, Saint Lucia, W. I. Permanent Secretary

Applicants can also access the internet services at the ICD Centers in Garrand, Monchy, Anse La Raye, Soufriere, Vieux-Fort and Micoud between the hours of 9:00 am – 4:00 pm.

For more information on the Programme, contact the Ministry of Equity via telephone number 1(758) 468-5108 or email at pssec.equity@govt.lc.

SOURCE: Ministry of Equity, Social Justice and Empowerment

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8 COMMENTS

  1. DID LUCIANS KNOW ABOUT THIS MONIES, I NEVER HEARED ABOUT THAT. SO MANY PPL DIED OF COVID THEY CLAIMED SO DID THEY GET COMPENSATED HMMM.

  2. Non-NIC contributors taking the money of NIC contributors. What a joke. NIC is already going broke. Only a matter of time before it goes bankrupt. Ponzi schemes always do. There aren’t enough kids being born. The young boys refuse to work in regular jobs and prefer to get employment in fields that don’t pay NIC contributions (thug life). The young girls rather work on their backs. Soon retirement age will be raised to 90 meaning 99% of contributors will never enjoy their NIC contributions. It is yet another government ripoff under the guise of “helping the people”. More tax in your @$$.

    Imagine you start working at 20 years old. Your monthly NIC contribution is $250. You contribute that amount consistently for 45 years totaling $135,000. That is what NIC has due to you. How much would that $135,000 be able to buy you in 45 years time? Let’s compare that to history. In 1978 or 45 years ago with $135,000 you would be a very rich person. Now you can barely build a plywood house for that amount. Inflation is trending over 30% for the past 2 years. This rate will hopefully normalize. Imagine it does to 5% annually. Losing 5% of purchasing power every year makes your $135,000 at the NIC essentially worthless as you won’t be able to afford anything in 45 years.

    Now imagine if you had taken that same NIC contribution and placed it in some investment (financial or business) that pays you 5% a year. In 45 years that would grow to $506,000 or almost 4 times the amount. You would easily be able to afford those things you want and need with that money. NIC is a burden on taxpayers and nothing more. See why they used to call it national insurance SCHEME. It is a scheme to rob you blind. The rebranding from NIS to NIC doesn’t change anything.

    The infinitesimally small minority comprising the rich; working in tandem with their lieutenants, the politicians, no longer fear the vast majority comprising the poor and working class. Fear is a powerful motivator. The same way the poor fear losing their measly comforts handed down by their overlords. The other side fear the poor being united and smart enough to see how they being robbed. Unfortunately, they have devised fantastic tools to keep the poor at each other’s throats. See why we need pitchforks and torches to keep those thieves at the top in line.

  3. It will be quite illuminating to discover if this limited (‘caca dent’) disbursement comes with the proviso that recipients waive their rights to seek redress against governments, health agencies, and pharmaceutical companies for any loss of income (surely, substantially higher than EC$1500) from forced lockdowns, as well as adverse effects & death from mandated mRNA “vaccines”.

    Any half-assed legal team would have advocated/lobbied for this minimum program of victim compensation as an essential stop-loss measure for their clients, who would likely have to pay degrees of magnitude more in civil damages for what any normal discovery process would uncover (particularly, world-wide conspiracy to defraud & depopulate), as part of a class action suit (initiated by global insurance companies – you can’t make this up).

  4. Hope people do what they have to do to get this money. This is not government or tax payers money. It is worth the effort.

  5. Your name goes into the system .free money from who .there is a jab in a sac oh I’m scared what shady deal went through oh I hear rf got visa something fishy

  6. Ministry of equity is a shame they taking people account numbers and personal information and the recipients never receive money something too shady there as well

  7. @James Banks: Break it down for us how you came to the conclusion that “this is not government or tax payers money.

  8. Again these idiots peddling propaganda and shoving it down ppl throat? Like St. Lucians are really a clownish population mun. Why don’t take that money and setup a digital library for our youths so they can get access electronically to have the necessary eBook available and take off the burden from parent? Ok what if we all stop producing what will happen to our economy 30yrs from now? Might be a island infested with rats and cockroaches

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