West: World Bank finds GATE mean-test threshold too high

THE financial income threshold for means testing to access the Government Assistance for Tertiary Education (GATE) programme is too high.

Minister in the Ministry of Finance Allyson West shared this opinion, which came from a World Bank Report, as she answered questions in the Senate on Wednesday.

The current model used for tertiary education funding is cost-sharing. In its application for undergraduate programmes, where the household income is $10,000 per month or less, a student would be eligible for 100 per cent GATE funding.

If the household income is above $10,000 per month but less than $30,000, then a student is eligible for 75 per cent of funding, and if the household income is more than $30,000 per month, a student is eligible for 50 per cent funding.

There is also a means test for postgraduate studies.

West said the report, which was a public expenditure review, highlighted major inefficiencies in social protection spending.

She said it noted that repairs and maintenance in the education sector was seriously under budgeted.

The report also indicated that while education outcomes had improved in recent years, there were still high levels of expenditure as compared to other countries.

West was responding to Independent Senator Amrita Deonarine's question on whether the Government would publicise the public expenditure review which the World Bank conducted on TT.

Deonarine also asked the minister to identify the main areas of inefficiencies and duplications identified in the report, specifically with respect to the Ministries of Social Development and Family Services, Health and Education.

In her response, West said the Government had no immediate intentions to publicise the world bank public expenditure review but added, the review highlighted major inefficiencies in social protection sector spending.

West said TT spends more on social protection than any other country in Latin America and the Caribbean.

The vast majority of this spending is on the smallest demographic, the elderly.

She said the report found the elderly received over 50 per cent of social protection spending in 2018, while spending on youth, the unemployed and other categories had declined in the past decade.

She said TT offered the most generous basic pensions benefits in the world relative to its per capita income.

Regarding healthcare, West said the rising prevalence of non-communicable diseases was driving a rapid increase in healthcare costs. She said TT suffers from inadequate information systems in the health sector and the lack of a unified, comprehensive information management system contributed to high costs.

She said Government was still assessing results of the programme.