Salary grant relief applications start this week

Salary grant application forms will be available to the public. This was mentioned in an advertisement posted on Finance Minister Colm Imbert’s Twitter page.

In a tweet, Imbert said, “This advert provides the criteria and procedures for the Salary Relief Grant of up to $1,500 for up to three months.”

He added, “It’s available to workers who have lost their jobs or salary as a result of covid19. We are starting with persons in the NIS system before moving to other workers.” The advert said application forms will be online from April 8 and from any police station in TT from April 9. Online applications begin immediately.

The advert urged citizens to use the online application process to avoid public gatherings, in keeping with the public health regulations advocating social distancing to prevent the spread of covid19. The forms can be downloaded online from www.nibtt.net. The ministry will announce safe drop off locations for the forms between April 10 and 13.

On March 23, Imbert announced the grant for people who may be affected by the impact of its covid19 precautions on the economy. Imbert described the grant as the “most important measure” that his team had come up with “because we recognise because of the measures taken and because of the issues associated with this pandemic there will be people unemployed.”

People who have been temporarily unemployed or displaced as a result of the pandemic will be eligible for a grant up to $1,500 a month for three months in the first instance. The grant will be administered through the NIB because it already has data on all the people in the PAYE (pay as you earn) tax system. He estimated the grant would cost $400 million over the next three months “but we thought it was necessary.”