Government’s commitment to supporting vulnerable members of society remains strong and achievements over the last year have materially improved the lives of the less fortunate.
Minister of Finance Dr Ashni Singh made the disclosure during the budget presentation on Monday.
He noted that much emphasis will be placed on children, youths, seniors, the homeless, single mothers and indigenous populations.
Children
Dr Singh revealed that the foster care programme, which was successfully piloted last February, will now receive $20M towards its support.
A new building to house about 70 vulnerable children would be constructed at the Sophia Care Centre facility.
The school uniform programme has also been expanded to include every school child, regardless of economical status.
Two pieces of legislation—the Child Care and Development Services Bill and the
Adoption and Custody, Contact, Guardianship and Maintenance of Children’s Bill—are expected to be passed this year.
With the enactment of four pieces of legislation, the Child Care and Protection Agency (CCPA) commenced operation in 2009, and managed to prevent 262 children separating from their families.
The agency has since set a target of 100 children who are to be removed from institutional care and placed in foster homes.
The Finance Minister stated that 62 children, who were temporarily housed in Care-Homes were reunited with their biological families while 124 were removed from threatening environments.
All children’s homes are now in compliance with minimum standards and individual care plans have been implemented for every child in institutional care.
Elderly
Pension payments to 44,000 senior citizens are expected to cost government $3.5B this year with the new amount of $6,600.
Last year, in excess of 42,000 pensioners received the stipend of $6,300. The Palms Geriatric Facility was also upgraded at a cost of $40.7 million.
Homeless
The 2010 budget has provided support for homeless people through an allocation of $325M towards the completion of the shelter.
The residential centre, which serves the purpose of rehabilitation and reintegration, will accommodate 300 homeless persons.
Single Parents
Government has also taken action to improve the position of single parents with an allocation of $50M to continue this programme.
The programme includes assistance with day care expenses and training in such areas as cosmetology, catering, information technology, office procedures, childcare, and care for the elderly.
It targets 400 participants this year and offers child-friendly job training along with grants to each graduate towards the start-up of a business.
Last year, 374 single parents were trained and 324 day care vouchers were distributed to employed mothers.
Youths
One of the priority areas of the budget is vocational training which is done under the National Training Project for Youth Empowerment (NTPYE) and specifically targets out-of-school youths.
The NTPYE aims to train 2,500 young people in 2010 and 500 persons through the Youth Entrepreneurial Skills Training Programme (YEST).
Over 1,000 persons graduated from the NTPYE training last year while 500 successfully completed training through the YEST programme.
Sixty-six students graduated from the Board of Industrial Training Apprenticeship programme and 150 more are expected to enrol for classes in 2010.
The range of disciplines in the NTPYE programme was expanded to cover training for the positions of heavy-duty equipment operator and driver/salesperson based on demands made by the labour market.
The apprenticeships provide longer term training, developing skills in electrical engineering, mechanical engineering and building and construction.
Other vulnerable groups
Public assistance has received a budgetary allocation of $645M which would allow for the payment of $4,900 to each person.
The Central Recruitment and Manpower Agency targets placements of 2,500 applicants in jobs this year and is currently establishing a database to allow for online vacancy registration.
More than 2,000 persons were employed last year out of 2,479 requests made by employers.