Struggling residents will have new ways to get help under a law that received assent from Governor Daniel Pruce on Aug. 22, government announced.
An amendment to the Public Assistance Act 2013 — which the House of Assembly passed July 9 as part of the reforms recommended by the Commission of Inquiry — is designed in part to expand the range of available assistance to include longer-term “basic income grants” and shorter-term “hardship allowances” and “shock-response grants,” according to Government Information Services.
“This is a big step forward towards supporting the most vulnerable people in the Virgin Islands,” Mr. Pruce said in an Aug. 23 press release.
“It also represents a vast improvement to the previous grants systems and goes toward addressing the COI recommendation to reform legislation to allow a fairer, more equitable system.”
Reforms to come
Mr. Pruce added that the amended law is part of a larger reform plan.
“I welcome Cabinet’s commitment to continue to improve legislation in this area so it meets international best practice as well as introduce a wider social protection system based on the UNICEF and Social Policy Research Institute Review of 2022,” he said.
“A modern welfare system should benefit the people of the Virgin Islands for many years to come.”
Health and Social Development Minister Vincent Wheatley said the amendment will “revolutionise” social assistance in the territory.
“These amendments will allow us to better support and serve the most vulnerable members of our population,” he said in the press release.
“As minister of health and social development, I, with the support of my team, remain committed to championing unified social protection services as we strive towards a future that’s more inclusive, resilient, responsive and full of hope.”
Previous reforms
The new amendment builds on previous reforms to the territory’s Assistance Grants Programme, which has been dramatically revamped over the past two years in keeping with recommendations in the 2022 COI report.
Shortly after the release of the report — which provided a scathing assessment of the programme’s previous set-up — discretionary power for awarding assistance grants was removed from elected HOA members when the programme was transferred to the Social Development Department.
The recent amendment, which was Gazetted on Tuesday, establishes new rules and other parameters for the programme.
Among other changes, the law expands the functions of the Public Assistance Committee, including the responsibility of oversight in eligibility determination, benefit calculation and grievance resolution.
Additionally, the law provides amended guidelines for determining eligibility for different types of grants: long-term basic income grants for three to 12 months; short-term basic income grants for up to three months; and single non-recurring payments for purposes including a “hardship allowance” and a “shock response grant.”
History of criticism
Criticism of the assistance programme’s previous system goes back at least 15 years.
In 2009, government auditors blasted the programme for its lack of transparency and accountability, noting that legislators had approved constituents’ funding requests for items including lingerie, a trip to Grenada, a hair show sponsorship, and “tickets for models at a car show.”
In 2021 and 2022, the COI revisited those concerns and found that little had changed.
Though the 2009 report by the then-Internal Audit Unit recommended several reforms, they were never carried out, COI Commissioner Sir Gary Hickinbottom reported.
Instead, HOA members continued disbursing public money with almost no oversight or accountability, creating an environment in which serious dishonesty or abuse of power may have occurred, the commmissioner alleged in the COI report.
To address such concerns, the COI recommended several reforms, which started shortly after the COI report was released in April 2022: In June 2022, discretion for awarding the grants was transferred from elected HOA members to the SDD, government said at the time.