September 16, 2021

Imbert: Slow Issuance Of Salary Relief Grants Due To Applicants Missing, Misrepresenting Information

By Newsroom

Of the 21,656 applicants screened for government’s Salary Relief Grants, payments have been made to roughly 6,560 eligible applicants.

Finance Minister Colm Imbert says the delayed payment of the grant, in many cases, is due to applicants  either misrepresenting or missing critical information in their application.

He was responding to a question in the Lower House. 

“There was a particular individual in my own constituency who applied for a grant and was unsuccessful. And I had to indicate to the person, they left out the NIS information of their employer and other details as it relates to their employer. It took quite a long time for that information to be submitted. So in many cases, the date on which a payment is made is dependent on the persons providing the necessary information,” Imbert said.

Other cases, the Minister said, were due to applicants misrepresenting information, such as the date of their termination. 

“The processing of these applications is quite a comprehensive process… The Salary Relief Grant Unit at the Ministry of Finance is making personal phone calls to every single one of those persons o ensure that they are given another opportunity to provide the missing information- so they can get the grant from this caring PNM government,” Imbert said.

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