Permanent Secretary for Economy, Shiri Gounder says the Ministry is mindful that there are genuine guardians that need to be assisted through the $180 per child Inflation Mitigation Assistance and they are currently exploring options around how these applications could be facilitated.
Gounder says further details will be provided later.
He says so far the Ministry had restricted applications to be made only by parents given the challenges associated with the identification of "real" guardians and the associated risks as anybody could claim to be a guardian.
Some grandparents who look after their grandchildren have been asking publicly why they are not included in the program, as it currently covers parents only.
Some have said that there are children who are known by their schools and community that are in the care of a guardian since birth. They say these are students whose parents have passed on or are separated.
Meanwhile the Ministry of Economy has so far paid over $45 million to 252,291 Fijians as part of the Government's $180 Inflation Mitigation Assistance.
Gounder says this includes parents of 146,982 students below Year 13, around 11,923 tertiary students, 86,198 Social Welfare recipients, 5,737 Aftercare beneficiaries and 1,451 pensioners.
He says about another 40,000 applications are currently under assessment and will be paid in the next few days. In a Government facebook post today, Litia Veitala Mataqaqa, a resident of Vatoa Village in Bau, thanked the Government for helping her through the $180 Inflation Assistance payment, which she put towards school supplies for her 4 children's education.
It says Fijians like Litia are exactly who this assistance aims to help, softening the financial impact of the current global inflation.
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