PRIME Minister Portia Simpson Miller yesterday handed out the first batch of hurricane relief cheques to National Insurance Service (NIS) pensioners and beneficiaries under the Programme For Advancement through Health and Education (PATH).

Overall, some 90,000 families who are beneficiaries under the PATH Programme will receive a one-off payment of $2,000 each, while 80,000 NIS pensioners and elderly will receive a special payment of $5,000. The total cost of the two special hurricane relief benefits package amounting to some $580 million is being financed from the $49-billion National Insurance Fund.

“At this time, when people are suffering, we do not need to be distracted by accusations of victimisation,” Simpson Miller told the gathering at the social security ministry in Kingston, adding that this was “a time to put the people above selfish individual concerns and above politics, in this season of campaigning”.

Yesterday, she also announced that the government will assist the families of the four persons who died as a result of the hurricane “with the funeral expenses of their loved ones”.

She said “there are special groups in the society on whom the impact of the disaster was greatest such as the elderly, our children, persons with disabilities, and government had no choice but to respond.”

She commended the efforts of all the relief agencies; the staff of the ODPEM; the Ministry of Labour and Social Security; Poor Relief Officers and the many voluntary and faith-based organisations and individuals who have been contributing to national recovery effort.