Only $16 Million Disbursed In Unemployment Relief

The Government’s Unemployment Relief Programme was closed off to the public on April twenty-fourth, less than a month after it was launched. More than eighty thousand applications were received and a little more than fifty percent of that number was approved. However, those who were approved have been complaining that they have not received any monies, or have only received one payment under the programme. According to economic czar Chris Coye, a total of sixteen million of the seventy-five million dollars earmarked for financial assistance has been disbursed so far.

Chris Coye

Chris Coye, Financial Advisor, P.U.P.  

“The last figure we got, approximately sixteen million has already been disbursed to the persons who have been approved. That will exceed over thirty million by the end of June for those same forty-four thousand people. The discussion now going forward would be whether or not the program will be extended and that is one and the second, whether it will be open back open. I don’t think decisions from the government have been made in that connection yet.”

John Briceño

John Briceño, Leader of the Opposition

“I just want to point out Polo that we believe that we should open up the unemployment relief program when we first discussed that. We were talking about having a funding of twenty five million dollars to be able to help because we know what is going to come. So only sixteen million has been disbursed I think we need to ensure we go to at least what we programmed at the beginning.”