UPDATE: A government official has confirmed that approval of the funding for the tourism stipend is needed from the Finance Committee. This will take place at the conclusion of the LA agenda, likely next week.
(CMR) Thousands of displaced tourism workers are still waiting for their October $1,000 tourism stipend payment for October. Many have contacted CMR since Friday indicating that the payments have been falling behind each month, but this payment is now delayed significantly.
A week has now passed and no reason has been given for the delay.
The delay is impacting many unemployed industry workers including hotel workers, taxi drivers and water sports operators. Normally, payments are received around the middle of the month since it was launched in July. CMR received several complaints that September payments were several days late.
Some have shared that they are unable to make rent/mortgage payments or even taxi insurance etc. and have received no explanation for the delay. No one has communicated with them. Just last month, the government announced they would be extending the payout for an additional three months carrying the workers through until the end of the year. The process was re-opened for persons how missed the first opportunity to apply to do so and existing participants would not be required to reapply.
One unofficial sourced shared with CMR that they believed Cabinet needed to take the matter to the legislative assembly to receive approval for the additional funding. Another source shared that the ministry had not yet approved the funds and hence the delay. CMR has reached out to the government for an explanation.
Health Minister Dwayne Seymour also promised that the government would be paying the health insurance costs for these workers until the end of the year. However, CMR could find no industry workers that have been contacted about this as yet and there has been information supplied on how to apply.
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