COVID-19 grant distribution: Query forms to address multiple family households

Multiple families living in one household will be able to benefit from the Government’s $25,000 COVID-19 relief cash grant, once their tenancy can be verified.

Vice President, Hon Dr. Bharrat Jagdeo said the Government is aware that there are multiple families dwelling together who need the grant and it has taken steps to ensure that all can benefit.  

 As such the main family of the home will receive the grant first, while other families will be required to fill out a “pink” query form.

“We know that there are households where there are more than one family. We have a pink form that they will fill up. The principal occupant of the house will get $25,000. We will then return to the house and look at all the pink forms and verify the additional families and then sort them out,” he said in a recent interview.   

The VP explained that the system has to be employed to avoid an abuse of the process as the Government still has to account for the money.

“If you start in the first round, all the money will be distributed in one area because everybody will say ten persons in the family. So, there are things in place to ensure everybody get, but in stages. So, we want to first of all get the bulk of it out in an auditable form,” Dr. Jagdeo said.

Two days before the Emergency Budget 2020 was presented in the National Assembly, His Excellency Dr. Mohammed Irfaan Ali, announced a range of relief measures to cushion the effects of COVID-19. The $25,000 per household cash grant was among those measures.

The Head of State had said he hoped the provision would help buttress vulnerable families.

Communities in the four hinterland regions have already received their grants. The process will begin in Regions 10 (Upper Demerara-Berbice) and Six (East Berbice-Corentyne) this weekend, before going to other coastal regions.