By LEANDRA ROLLE

Tribune Staff Reporter

lrolle@tribunemedia.net

ABOUT 30,000 people have received unemployment assistance from the National Insurance Board amid the COVID-19 pandemic, according to Public Service Minister Brensil Rolle, who added that officials will be making additional payments to 6,000 affected workers this week.

Giving an update to reporters ahead of a Cabinet meeting yesterday, Mr Rolle said applications to NIB show more than 30,000 people have been laid off or lost their income due to the virus.

He said: "Approximately 30,000 individuals have been paid by NIB in their unemployment assistance and in the regular government programme, about 7,000 plus have been paid out. So, what it suggests to me is that approximately 30 something thousand of Bahamians are not employed at this moment.

"…I don't have a dollar amount (on how much has been paid), but what we've projected is approximately $16 million a month more than what we normally pay."

Later yesterday, NIB released a statement saying the agency had paid 32,000 applicants unemployment benefits and assistance. NIB said $28.7 million has been paid out to 26,185 claimants for COVID-19 related unemployment benefit (UEB) payments while $6.2 million has been paid to 6,105 recipients for the government unemployment assistance (UEA) programme.

Mr Rolle's comments come amid public concern about why some workers have already received the much-needed payments, while others have not.

However, to this, the NIB minister said it's been difficult for officials to finalise payments for all workers as some individuals have not been submitting the necessary information.

"We're running an additional 6,000 cheques, I think, this week for new individuals," he said. "Let's hope they're in that group, but what the issue has been is persons have not been providing us with the appropriate information so we can speed up the process.

"And we're double checking things to make sure that these persons are engaged and employed."

Earlier this month, Prime Minister Dr Hubert Minnis said the country's unemployment rate "will likely exceed an unprecedented and extraordinary 30 percent" as a result of the economic uncertainty from the virus.

Asked yesterday if NIB is prepared to conduct more payments in light of the prime minister's recent statements, the Garden Hills MP said officials remained committed to fulfilling their duties to the Bahamian people.

He said: "We're doing our best. We've made a commitment to make payments to the Bahamian people and I can't say specifically what the outer bands will be, but what I do know is more than 30,000 persons have been paid by NIB.

"And as a consequence, I could clearly say that more than 30,000 persons are unemployed at this time in the Bahamas."

Mr Rolle said while the pandemic may put a strain on NIB's resources, he does not foresee the board not being able to carry out its obligations to the Bahamians people " at this time."

"We are in an unprecedented time," he said. ". . .And yes, it's going to be a strain on the NIB board and I fully understand that but, I don't see that we will not be able to make the payments at this time."

As it relates to those employers who have not kept up to date with their NIB payments, Mr Rolle said the matter will be handled by the relevant authorities.

"There are some companies that owe NIB monies and we've taken the critical and legal position to pay their employees unemployment assistance and then, we will go after these companies to make sure that they provide us with the appropriate amount of funds that are owed," he continued.

"…I know a list has been prepared by NIB, the list is a work of progress. It's a list that showed persons that owed NIB for years and have not made payments so what we've done in that process is we take them to a legal department and sometimes it goes to the courts, an internal court, for a decision to be made."