Minister for Women, Children and Social Protection Sashi Kiran has clarified that the reforms approved by Cabinet are aimed at strengthening the Family Assistance Scheme (FAS) and ensuring that the social protection system continues to support Fiji’s poorest households with fairness, accuracy, and dignity.
However, Opposition MP Virendra Lal says they will not support a system that uses modernisation to mask the exclusion of the struggling middle class.
In her ministerial statement, Kiran says the Family Assistance Scheme is Fiji’s primary poverty-targeted programme among the six social protection programmes run under the Ministry.
She says it provides a critical safety net for households living in extreme hardship and complements life-course social protection programmes that support Fijians during childhood, maternity, old age, and disability.
Kiran adds that under its current design, the Family Assistance Scheme seeks to target the poorest 10 percent of households.
The Minister says while the 2019–20 Household Income and Expenditure Survey shows that 24 percent of the population lives below the national poverty line, the scheme is focused on reaching the “poorest of the poor”.
However, she says poverty and vulnerability are not static, as households move in and out of hardship when they face opportunities or shocks.
She adds that this makes accurate targeting challenging, especially when reassessments are infrequent and resource-intensive, particularly in maritime and remote communities.
Responding to the statement, Opposition MP Virendra Lal says the government is giving a 50 percent cash top-up to the bottom 10 percent, but questions what about the thousands of working families in the 11th and 12th percentiles.
Insert: Lal on why, 28th April 26
He says they support progress, but will not support a system that uses modernisation to mask the exclusion of the struggling middle class.
Lal says they must ensure the safety net is wide enough to catch everyone who is falling.
He adds that a government that puts people first looks at the person, not just the spreadsheet.
