LABOUR and Security Minister Pearnel Charles Jr on Tuesday said relief teams have only been able to validate a little more than half of the 13,500 Jamaicans assessed for Hurricane Beryl damage so far, due to problems verifying the identity of individuals.

According to Charles Jr, complaints in quarters that no assistance has been received could be attributed to this.

“So you may hear persons in the news or otherwise saying, ‘I was assessed and all now I don’t hear my name called.’ Primarily, it is because of the inability to validate you. All persons who have been validated, their cheques have been printed,” Charles Jr told a post-Cabinet press briefing at Jamaica House in St Andrew.

“We have been assessing across the country. When I stood here first, the number at that time was 8,700; the number of assessments done now is beyond 13,500… Of the full amount of households that have been assessed, there are a number that we have not been able to validate, and that process includes us going through the contact information — your name, your number, your address — as well as validating your Taxpayer Registration Number (TRN). What this has exposed is that a little under 5,000 of the 13,500, we have not been able to validate any of them for one reason or another,” he said.

According to Charles Jr, this was either because, “the name was spelt incorrectly, or the TRN [given] was incorrect”.

“In our interaction and engagement with citizens, many did not have their TRN cards because the house was totally destroyed, or for whatever reason they couldn’t identify or find it at the time,” Charles Jr told the briefing. He said labour ministry officials are now going through a process of re-verification, reaching out to people by phone, calling residents of the community on their street, talking to Members of Parliament and councillors, and going back into the communities.

“So far, we have been able to validate a little more than 7,000 of the 13,500. The good news is that of that amount that we have validated, 100 per cent of the validated beneficiaries, 100 per cent of those cheques have been printed, 100 per cent of those cheques have been distributed either to the parish offices or to the areas where they are to be collected. Of that amount, more than 50 per cent have either been delivered or collected by a beneficiary already. So, we are in high gear, moving at high pace in achieving in this six-to-eight-week period what would normally, under ordinary circumstances, take us more than six to eight months,” he said.

Charles Jr further said another 503 individuals were picked up in re-verification exercises on Tuesday morning. He said those cheques will be printed “for immediate distribution and delivery”.

The labour minister, in the meantime, said the process “has exposed the need for the National Identification System (NIDS).

“Like it or not, if the country is going to develop we have to be able to identify, we have to be able to collate and move swiftly. This is the main reason why we cannot today announce that 100 per cent of all persons have received their cheques,” he said.

Following the passage of Hurricane Beryl on July 3 the Government allocated more than $1 billion in support to the Ministry of Labour for the distribution of grant support to citizens whose homes were damaged or destroyed by the hurricane. People with minor damage have been pegged to receive $50,000; those with major damage, $150,000; and those whose houses were totally destroyed should receive $400,000 in two tranches of $200,000, after assessment.

On Tuesday, Charles Jr said St Elizabeth, which was hard hit, remains the parish with the larger number of assessments still ongoing.

“The largest number of cheques printed [are for] St Elizabeth — more than 1,245 for more than $116.4 million — and that’s ongoing; and that’s followed by Clarendon with more than 1,055 cheques printed at a value of an estimated $98.3 million; and St Mary, followed by Manchester, and then Portland,” he disclosed.

“So we hope and we are working towards being able to put in place the process to speed up the re-verification. There are persons who have indicated to us that they do not have a TRN or cannot find their TRN,” he said, noting that the ministry has enabled the use of proxies so individuals can identify a responsible individual who can receive the cheque on their behalf.

He said in addition to the cheques from the Government, there will be an additional cash grant provided through United Nations World Food Programme of US$1.4 million for beneficiaries in the more vulnerable categories. That tranche will commence this month. He encouraged people with concerns about the assessment to contact the ministry.