The Minister of Women, Children and Social Protection Hon Lynda Tabuya in response to criticisms from civil society and politicians about the welfare graduation program wishes to clarify misinterpretation and misinformation spread by the media and several individuals.
The Minister stated that the Ministry for Women, Children and Social Protection (MWCSP) is in the process of social protection reform and is strengthening its Welfare Graduation Program to support the social assistance beneficiaries to diversify into sustainable livelihoods and graduate from the program within an agreed timeline.
“Our aim to reduce welfare is to graduate social welfare recipients who are able bodied men and women between the ages of 18 to 45 that will be provided appropriate skills training and education and then placed in places of employment. It is not a new concept in the social protection sector to work together with the selected recipients and relevant stakeholders in providing them with appropriate coaching, mentoring, skills training towards successful work strategies,” Minister Tabuya said.
This is the ‘welfare to workfare’ strategy that the Ministry has and is strengthening its implementation to ensure that every recipient will be assessed and ascertain that they are able to commit to the pathway that the ministry will create for them.
The ministry is setting up a Welfare Graduation Unit working with our development partners. With the technical support provided from the World Bank, it is also working closely with the Ministry of Finance, Strategic Planning, National Development and Statistics for a stronger linkage with new employment programs including Jobs for Nature and in the development of Economic Inclusion framework that consist of a strategy, program components, institutional arrangement, training and linkage to services that could provide systematic support to these recipients.
It will be these very same recipients who will be given an expiry date for their allowances which not only sets a timeline for them but for the ministry as well.
This graduation program only applies to those on the Family Assistance Scheme, previously known as the Poverty Benefit Scheme and will be carefully assessed to ensure they are able to be trained and employed.
The Welfare Graduation Program will be monitored and successful implementation will be measured according the recipient’s capacity to earn a decent income and be in a position to be Graduated from Government assistance.
The Ministry in collaboration with the Australian Government through its flagship social protection program, the Partnerships for Social Protection Program (P4SP) continues to work on the social protection reform agenda to strengthen its program efficiency and effectiveness, in alignment with the national Social Assistance Policy, across its six major social assistance benefits.
With P4SP’s expertise in social protection, gender, economics, and information systems, it has conducted extensive consultations with relevant agencies and done a technical review on all its social assistance program last year.
In phase 2 of the project, the team are working closely with the ministry professionals in implementing the approved recommendations that includes capacity building, improved case management, processes and robust information system to flag benefit timelines and to identify recipients for Welfare Graduation program.
As Government takes concrete steps to move away from handing out assistance to employment building, entrepreneurial skills and capacity, NGOs and politicians should be encouraging and supporting this program that sees our able-bodied men and women be graduated from welfare to workfare and wellbeing, to discourage the dependency syndrome and the welfare state that the previous government had perpetuated for 16 years. It challenges all employment sectors to be a model by providing training, recruiting, hiring, and supporting welfare recipients. We need to strengthen our workforce since thousands have left in the last 9 months.
We need to put our people to work, progress together towards inclusive recovery from pandemic and natural disasters and need to explore ways that have been proven worldwide and working hand in hand with our development partners in a holistic manner to ensure dignity and self respect as well as productive citizens contributing to the economy.