Delinquent parents, particularly fathers who do not contribute to their children’s upkeep will be pursued by the Ministry of Social Protection this year and they will be taken to court.
“Everyone will face the consequence – the law. The State cannot be burdened when a parent or parents have the means of taking care of their children and they choose not to do so. It doesn’t matter how big or small you are we’re going to come after you,” Minister of Social Protection Volda Lawrence was quoted as saying in a statement from the ministry.
The statement said that the ministry will pay keener attention to delinquent parents this year, particularly fathers who do not contribute financially to their child(ren)’s upkeep. Lawrence pointed out that too many fathers have abandoned their responsibility to their families, leaving the State to provide.
The Minister was at the time speaking with members of the newly-appointed Local Board of Guardians, who will review applications for Public Assistance for persons living along the East Bank Demerara.
The statement reported that Lawrence noted that there are cases where women are afraid to seek monies from fathers to support their children because of the men’s abusive behaviour, but the Ministry will address this as well.
Nevertheless, the statement said, the Minister acknowledged that there are parents who are genuinely unable to provide for their children due to various reasons and the Ministry is prepared to support those families, “but it’s unfair to use tax payers’ money to support children whose parents can afford to take care of them.”
The statement said that the East Bank Local Board of Guardian is one of the many installed across the country effective February 1, 2016 to process Public Assistance applications. Public Assistance is a form of temporary financial assistance issued by the Government of Guyana to specific persons, including the aged, infirmed, sick, destitute and children below the age of 14. At present, each monthly Public Assistance voucher is valued at $6,500.
The Boards are responsible for evaluating and determining the legitimacy of Public Assistance applications in rural areas to ensure that tax-payers’ dollars are justifiably spent.
The East Bank Board comprises Roderick Edinboro, Alma Francois-Bovell, Fannett Brandford, Loraine Stephens, Mark Braithwaite, and Deryck Boyce, the statement revealed.
“The Ministry of Social Protection lacks the capacity to deal with all the social issues we have by ourselves and as a result we need your help. You are our ears and eyes on the ground. Your interactions as members of the community can help us to get the facts on the issue…for too long we have made judgments about who get Public Assistance and how much based on perceptions. I’m saying let’s not use perception. Let us investigate the cases and execute our tasks base on facts. Let’s treat people with dignity and respect,” Lawrence charged.
Meanwhile, the minister further noted that there are some cases of the “dependency syndrome” where people are reluctant to seek alternative sources of income. However, she said the Ministry is taking a different approach to social protection in 2016.
“We will teach people to help themselves…We’re going to work to ensure that this is the last year for Public Assistance. We are working to introduce conditional cash transfer. In that way we focus on the family. The objective is to bring people out of poverty. When persons come into any agency/department of the Ministry a comprehensive evaluation will be done to see how the family is lacking and we will support that family in those areas. We believe that Public Assistance doesn’t capture the family, but the conditional cash transfer will,” she asserted.
Expressing her view that “everybody has potential,” the Minister noted that what is lacking is opportunity. She urged the Board to work along with religious leaders in the communities to further support families, the statement said.
