APPROXIMATELY 86 per cent of the 35,000 uncollected payments under the Government’s COVID-19 grant programme were from uncollected remittance company payments and invalid bank accounts.

Uncollected remittances and invalid bank accounts were responsible for 30,000 (15,000 each) of the 35,000 uncollected COVID Allocation of Resources for Employees (CARE) Programme grants, which were raised at last Thursday’s meeting of the Public Administration and Appropriations Committee (PAAC), held to review the Second Supplementary Estimates for 2020/21 at Gordon House.

According to Minister of Finance and the Public Service Dr Nigel Clarke, the problem associated with the return of 15,000 payments sent to remittances services were: No identification; people being deceased; people not being aware of the possibility of third party collections for beneficiaries 65 and over; and, some may not have been aware they were eligible, and may not have received an SMS (short message service).

In the case of the 15,000 returns from the banking system, the minister said they were due to invalid bank accounts.

“The CARE programme is calling on persons with invalid bank accounts [at phone numbers provided in their applications] and providing guidance on how to update their bank accounts particulars,” Dr Clarke told the Jamaica Observer.

He said that, in addition, 3,000 payments were returned to the Ministry of Finance from credit unions and building societies, which do not have electronic verification capability. The other 2,000 came back due to what he termed “miscellaneous” issues.

Manager of the CARE Programme, John Thompson, told the PAAC last Thursday that the ministry has recovered the funds from the banks and remittance companies, and are still trying to find the eligible beneficiaries who have not been paid.

However, Dr Clarke noted that the 35,000 returned grants were out of a total of 450,000 people, or seven per cent of the total, who have already received the CARE grants, which were issued by the Government to vulnerable individuals and sectors of the economy that were affected by the COVID-19 pandemic up to August.

He compared the Jamaican situation with that of the United States, where almost nine million people had not received their US$1,200 stimulus cheques up to mid-September. That group included individuals and families who don’t typically file tax returns, usually due to low incomes. They were given until mid-October to register the information with the Internal Revenue Service in order to access the payments.

The Government’s CARE Programme had received more than 500,000 applications across the available grant types up to April. Compassionate grant transfers to financial institutions began shortly after, and the funds have been available to applicants since May 7.