The Ministry of Finance would like to bring clarity to public discourse around payments to the Government Extended Unemployment Benefit Programme based on inaccurate suggestions that payments have been unfairly held up to certain individuals.

The Government has provided some $90 million in direct cash assistance and income replacement to nearly 38,000 unemployed Bahamians since March. These funds have been administered by the National Insurance Board on behalf of the government to eligible individuals. This $90 million sum does not include monies paid out by NIB as part of its 13-week earned unemployed benefits that is funded through employer and employee contributions to NIB. While there are some unemployed workers who were not able to access the government-subsidized programme, the Government has taken a comprehensive approach to COVID-19 assistance, including feeding programs, rent assistance and other forms of social support. 

The government remains exceedingly grateful to all those employers throughout the country who have provided ex-gratia payments to employees during this time, as well as those many employers who have had employees on full time or part time schedules throughout the pandemic even as the businesses themselves faced extreme commercial challenges.

To rest all doubt, the following is an overview of the Government Extended Unemployment Benefit Programme:

1. To date, since March, persons have obtained direct and earned unemployment benefits from the National Insurance Board (NIB) totaling $97.5 million.  These are sums paid out by NIB for up to 13 weeks and represent earned benefits that are part of the NIB schedule of benefits
2. Beginning in April, in recognition of the grave economic dislocation brought on by the pandemic, the government introduced a special unemployment benefit programme to provide assistance to persons who did not qualify for the NIB benefits.  
3. Beginning in July, in recognition that the 13-week period of earned benefits was coming to a close, the government extended the special unemployment benefit programme to tens of thousands of Bahamians who remained unemployed because of the pandemic.  Initially approved to provide support to these persons for an additional three-month period, this extended initiative would have taken most persons through the end of September.
4. The special unemployment benefit programme has been administered by NIB but funded by the government from budgeted funds approved by Parliament during the recent budget exercise. As at the end of November, some 36,959 persons have benefited from the special unemployment benefit programme in the aggregate sum of just over $91.9 million, going back to when it commenced last fiscal year.

In October, the government recognized that many Bahamians still remained unemployed as a number of the major employers remained closed due to the ongoing restrictions caused by the pandemic.

Notwithstanding the fact that the budget for this unemployment assistance had been largely exhausted and the government’s revenue continued to be very constrained, the government recognized the need to provide additional assistance to individuals given the severity of the circumstances.  The government then extended the programme at the time through the month of December, adjusting the weekly amount and the criteria to qualify.

With limited available resources, the government took the policy position that persons in the special unemployment benefit programme would receive income or income support of no less than $100 per week.   The difference in this iteration is that persons who work part-time, or who receive ex-gratia or other payments from the employer would only receive payments from the programme to bring them up to a minimum of $100 in income and/or income support.

This approach was taken to ensure that in an environment of scarce public resources, as many people as possible would obtain some measure of assistance

As the Prime Minister announced this past Sunday, the programme has since been extended through the end of January 2021.

To verify the amounts due to employees under this revised approach, the government has normally required that employers submit relevant information to the NIB.  The NIB would have only withheld payments until such information is provided by the employers.

The NIB has advised the government that the last major employer submitted their listing of eligible employees yesterday evening (Tuesday, December 8^th, 2020).  This will allow for relevant payments to be made to those employees who qualify under the most recent terms mentioned above.