BYisrael: Headache over covid19 social aid

Dr Faith BYisrael is calling for the establishment of a covid19 social response taskforce in Tobago.

Speaking during a Facebook live on Monday, the Minority Councillor said it is important to get the social support response aspect right. BYisrael said currently there is no clear leadership in Tobago as it relates to the social response.

“I think that the same way there is a taskforce for the medical or public health aspect of covid19, there needs to also be a taskforce who is responsible for mapping through how we do the social response,” she said.

Although there are daily covid19-related press conferences in Trinidad, BYisrael said people are still left confused.

“We have to ask ourselves what does that mean on the ground, what does that mean for Tobago, how does that apply to us?

“I think this is where our social support taskforce could have been coming together, thinking through what is happening nationally, thinking about whether there are pitfalls in Tobago and figuring out how we treat with those pitfalls, if there are any. We need to have a very clear set of processes on how we do things in Tobago, how we respond to the social needs of Tobagonians.”

BYisrael said the THA Division of Finance and the Economy-issued food cards is not running as smoothly as envisioned.

“I got a message this morning from someone who said that they got the food card, the temporary emergency food card from the Tobago House of Assembly, but when they got up to the counter the grocery (cashier) tried swiping that food card in the normal food card machine and it did not work.”

BYisrael said this can be very frustrating.

She said the food cards can not be used at the smaller groceries in the East and are seemingly only accepted at the larger grocery chains in the West.

“Last Friday we were all in the roadblocks and they were telling us if we live in the East, we should not be going to town to do grocery shopping because we have groceries in Tobago East. We have the situation where people have these food cards, they’re trying to go to the groceries closest to them but the groceries that are closest to them don’t accept those food cards.”

This, she said is where a taskforce could come in handy and be brainstorming “to ensure that we don’t have to go all the way to town to get groceries.”

Concerning students on the school feeding programme, BYisrael said aid to these families has been lacking.

She said she has been bombarded with calls from parents saying they have not been contacted while some say they received calls approximately two or three weeks ago saying their names are on a list, but they were never contacted after.

“It’s little things like these that I think we needed to have worked out.

“I know that nothing is going to be perfect, I know that nothing is going to work perfectly the way it should but it seems like so many of these things were not thought through in the first place, so that when time for roll out started happening, there were so many questions."

She commended the Ministry of Social Development and Family Services for taking the initiative to simplify the salary grant access forms.

“Those forms were so amazingly difficult to get completed… imagine you are telling people to stay home, they have been sent home and because they’ve been sent home they need the support but you’re telling them go find two references to sign, find their employer to sign, get copies of all of these things, and because of all of that it was so difficult.

“I am so happy when I saw the message late last week that the Ministry of Social Development changed those forms, they simplified those forms so you don’t have to do all that running around again.”

BYisrael said a taskforce in Tobago could help smooth the kinks in providing social aid.

“It is things like these, that if we had a comprehensive system that was looking at how we roll out these things, we could have prevented a lot of the heartache and a lot of the angst and a lot of the anxiety that I am getting from people. People are anxious, people are having to deal with not being at work and having to feed their children.”

Responding to the concerns raised by BYisrael, Deputy Chief Secretary and Secretary of Finance and the Economy Joel Jack said the food card is also available to be used at a number of the smaller groceries on the north-eastern and eastern end of the island. He promised to furnish the list, however, up to press time on Monday none was forthcoming.

Jack declined comment on the establishment of social response taskforce.