$9.5 million PATH benefits disbursed – Samuda
KINGSTON, Jamaica – A sum of $9.5 billion in benefits was disbursed between April 2022 and February 2023 to provide social support to vulnerable Jamaicans under the Programme of Advancement Through Health and Education (PATH).
PATH is the Government’s flagship social protection programme and is administered through the Ministry of Labour and Social Security.
Portfolio Minister, Karl Samuda, provided an update during the recent sitting of the Standing Finance Committee of the House of Representatives.
He informed that the programme now aids approximately 300,000 individuals, noting that they are paid bimonthly.
“In June 2022, we increased the benefit level by an average of 18 per cent. Now you might say 18 per cent sounds impressive, but… if [the economy) continues to go into the direction it is going, we will see increases taking place. Hopefully, those increases will make the benefit even more meaningful than they are now,” he said.
Samuda said the ministry will continue to implement systems for the efficient distribution of benefits to Jamaicans.
“This Ministry does not produce or earn any money. The most we do is get a little fee that’s charged for a work permit, but we don’t earn money. It is our responsibility, therefore, to ensure that our stewardship of the funds that we get, in dispersing them, helping the poor and needy, and elevating them from where they are, is what we are about,” he said.