Unemployment benefit of people to be reviewed after 5 weeks - Sayed-Khaiyum

Minister for Economy, Aiyaz Sayed-Khaiyum confirms the unemployment benefits announced in the 2020/2021 National Budget will be for five weeks after an application is made and an assessment will be done after five weeks to ascertain what has happened to the person who is receiving the benefit.

He says people may get re-employed after the five week period and this is the kind of checks and balances they have to put in place.

Under this scheme, those whose working days or hours have been reduced will receive $44 per fortnight for every day they are no longer working.

Those who are fully unemployed will continue to get $220 per fortnight.

Those whose working days or hours have been reduced will receive $44 per fortnight for every day they are no longer working.

So, if you are now only working three days a week, you will receive $88 every two weeks; if you’re down to working only one day a week, you will receive $176 every two weeks.

Sayed-Khaiyum says if people have money in their FNPF general account, then they can source the benefits from there and if they do not have sufficient funds, then government will top it up.

He adds that they are moving away from lump sum payment or withdrawals because a lot of people have complained that when lump sum payments are made, some people are tempted to buy things like TV.

He says if payments are on a fortnightly basis, it is essentially like getting a pay.

Government has made $100 million available to make sure every unemployed Fijian is able to access their full relief payments.