The Tribune

By NICO SCAVELLA

Tribune Staff Reporter

nscavella@tribunemedia.net

NEARLY 1,500 people in New Providence will be able to utilise the Department of Social Services’ new pre-paid debit card by the end of this month, Social Services Minister Melanie Griffin has announced.

During her mid-year budget contribution in the House of Assembly last week, Mrs Griffin said 699 food assistance recipients at the Wulff Road Centre and an additional 733 at the Fox Hill Centre will be using the pre-paid card in time for March.

She also said that the card will be introduced next at the Robinson Road and Nassau Street Centres. She said “ground work” has also commenced in Grand Bahama for the introduction of the card and said the process “will continue on a gradual basis throughout The Bahamas”.

Mrs Griffin said: “While we experienced some minor challenges that come with any new initiative, the introduction of the reloadable card has many advantages. The first and immediate advantage is that persons no longer have to come to the Centres at the end of each month and stand on a line, sometimes for hours, to collect a paper coupon.

“Secondly, the card can be used in any food store that accepts pre-paid cards. Thirdly, the full value does not have to be utilised at one time, it allows for purchases to be spread out over the month. And then there is the anonymity with the card so that beneficiaries are not readily identified and stigmatised.

“By the end of this month, 699 food assistance recipients at the Wulff Road Centre and 733 at the Fox Hill Centre will be utilising the pre-paid card. The card will be introduced next at the Robinson Road Centre and the necessary work to facilitate this has commenced after which the Nassau Street Centre will be done. Ground work has also commenced in Grand Bahama for the introduction of the card and the process will continue on a gradual basis throughout The Bahamas.”

The new debit card, which was launched in November, is a pre-paid Visa card in conjunction with Bank of the Bahamas (BOB), and is part of the first phase for a conditional cash transfer system. 

The card is designed to curb abuse of the food coupon system, which is now in place to assist needy families, and is seen as a key reform to how the government distributes aid to poor Bahamians.

Last year, Mrs Griffin said the card was part of wide-ranging upgrades to the Bahamas’ social safety net, which is being financed with $7.5m from the Inter-American Development Bank (IDB).

She also said last year that the conditional cash transfer system was a proactive approach in the lead up to VAT implementation with a view to combating any possible negative implications on the poor.

Last month, Mrs Griffin said that the government had approved a five per cent increase in the Department of Social Services’ food assistance budget to mitigate the impact of VAT on the poor. Mrs Griffin said her Ministry would be monitoring other forms of assistance to make any necessary adjustments in the wake of VAT implementation.

Last June, the Department of Statistics said that since 2001, poverty levels in The Bahamas have risen by 3.5 per cent, while more than 40,000 people in the country live below the poverty line – defined as an annual income of less than $5,000 a year.

Last month Tribune Business reported that a 2013 assessment by the IDB of VAT’s likely impact on the Bahamian economy and society noted that the poorest Bahamians would face an 11.2 per cent spending/disposable income cut over 10 years as a result of VAT if no “social safety net” is provided, with poverty levels increasing in line with the tax rate.