MEMBER of Parliament for Central St Catherine Olivia ‘Babsy’ Grange is calling for a review of the performance of the Programme for Advancement Through Health and Education (PATH) in St Catherine.

Grange said PATH has not benefited her constituency which comprises some 24 inner-city communities, despite being piloted there.

She raised the issue during the presentation of the Estimates of Expenditure in April, and suggested a review of the programme.

“The methodology should be revised and the persons responsible for the implementation should get on the ground and work more closely with the social workers and other social agencies,” Grange told the Observer. “I think too many families are suffering that should be benefiting.”

She said a survey carried out under a summer youth employment programme with assistance from the Stone Poll’s Euclit Marsh in the constituency in 2003, showed that only 187 households of the 1,700 surveyed had received PATH benefits.

A subsequent survey conducted between September and October last year said that of the 4,331 households surveyed, only 476 or 11 per cent were receiving benefits. Furthermore, it said of the 476 beneficiaries, 207 said they had problems getting their benefits after they signed up with the programme. The survey also showed that only 1,093 of the total households surveyed were aware of the programme.

“We constantly get complaints from people that they go and they are told they are not qualified or they have done the interview and they haven’t been called or they are on the programme but are not receiving their cheques,” Grange said.

She said information from the Spanish Town Post Office showed that a number of cheques had been returned to the National Insurance Scheme office because persons failed to collect them. She theorised that fear on the part of residents to cross political boundaries might be the cause.

Grange said she has taken up the concern with ministry officials and had raised the issue in parliament to no avail.

She said although a disk with the data from the first survey was submitted to the ministry, there has been no response from that office. Furthermore she said a request for a list of the names of persons whose cheques have been returned, has not been granted.

Parish manager for the NIS’ St Catherine office Neil Taylor told the Observer that persons can collect cheques which have been returned by the post office from their local NIS office.

Meanwhile, permanent secretary for the labour and social security ministry Alvin McIntosh said the ‘adjustments’ announced by Prime Minister Portia Simpson Miller in her 2007/08 budget presentation were being made to the PATH programme.

Speaking then, Simpson Miller said the programme was to be expanded and would cater to 252,000 up from 236,000, while a further $100 million would be injected into the programme. In addition, she said students up to 17 years of age would be able to remain on the programme once they matriculate to sixth form. A welfare to work programme is to be introduced this year to offer training, job-matching and business development skills to PATH beneficiaries who leave secondary schools with limited job prospects.