Welfare in your hand

Unity Fiji will take care of the people. One of the ways of taking care of the people is through social welfare programs.

What many people may not know is that the social welfare funding provided to the most vulnerable members of society has been well below by a maximum of 96% of the 2019-20 Basic Needs Poverty Line [BNPL] of $41.91 per adult per week, which is equivalent to just $5.98 a day

We have called this initiative ‘Welfare in your Hands’ because that is exactly how we plan to calculate the level of funding for our Social Welfare recipients. 

It will start with the predetermined amount that each recipient will receive ‘in their hands’ and not the ‘trickle down’ sum that fluctuates with the percentage increase or decrease in the budget estimates on the whims of the government.

For example, the Poverty Benefit Scheme and Child Protection are both funded on a per household basis while the other programmes are funded on a per recipient basis, yet there is no distinction between a per household funding vs the per individual funding.

With the average poor household size of 4.3,  the welfare support is a miserable $0.23 cents a day.

Likewise, the Child Protection programme, amounts to $6.28 per week per child or $0.89 cents per day.

This funding method is not adequate nor fair. It perpetuates poverty. We will overhaul this methodology.

With our ‘Welfare in your Hands’, Unity Fiji will ensure all our social welfare recipients get the level of financial support they need to make a real difference in their lives.

Savemaca Narube

Party Leader