242,941 people have applied for the $50 government assistance so far – AG

242,941 people have so far applied for the $50 government assistance for individuals 18 years and over in Viti Levu who do not get any form of assistance.

This was highlighted by the Minister for Economy Aiyaz Sayed-Khaiyum this while opposing a motion by NFP President Pio Tikoduadua that Parliament approves a sum of $50 million from the COVID-19 support aid funds provided by governments of New Zealand and Australia to be disbursed as income support to the unemployed and affected small and medium businesses as a result of the outbreak of the pandemic.

Sayed-Khaiyum says this is within the last 24 hours and they expect the numbers to go up as it closes tomorrow.

He says what this exercise is doing is giving them good data so that they know who these people are in the informal sector and the assistance can be more refined and targeted.

Sayed-Khaiyum says in the last $90 assistance 20,000 people who were not eligible had applied.

He says they are already getting their FNPF payments but wanted to double dip.

Sayed-Khaiyum says their teams have to do all these checking with the FNPF.