PM suggests he was going to increase ‘Poor Relief’ next year

Prime Minister Ralph Gonsalves has suggested that he was planning to announce during his independence address on Oct. 27, an increase in Public Assistance to take effect from January 2026.

He made the suggestion on Wednesday, even as he criticised the policy announced by the opposition New Democratic Party (NDP) that it would increase the monthly payout to EC$500 if elected to office in the upcoming election.

Currently, recipients of Public Assistance get EC$275 or EC$300 per month, depending on their age.

Vincentians are widely expected to elect a new government by November, ahead of the February 2026 constitutional deadline.

Last week, Opposition Leader and NDP President, Godwin Friday, announced that if elected to office, the NDP will reduce VAT on everyday items and residential electricity, issue a bonus salary, “Double Poor Relief from $250 to $500” and reinstate benefits lost due to the vaccine mandate within 60 days.

Gonsalves dismissed each of those policies in his weekly show on the state-owned NBC Radio on Wednesday.

“We had already signalled that we were going to increase public assistance, and they suspect that I would have made an announcement for January in my Independence Day,” Gonsalves said.

“So, they want to see if they could pre-empt De Comrade,” he further said, referring to himself.

Gonsalves also suggested that he would make an announcement in relation to the tax threshold.

“And you’ll hear me in my Independence Day address, say where we’re going to go with that further in the new year. Because we had already signalled,  [Minister of Finance] Camillo [Gonsalves] had already signalled it in his last budget speech, I myself had spoken about it and other things too, and you’ll hear things in my Independence Day address.”

Gonsalves suggested that the NDP policies were devised by their alleged British strategists, adding that the language used suggests this.

“They’re so desperate. Last Train to San Fernando. When they miss this one, they’ll never get another one,” he said.

The prime minister said that the NDP had demeaned people by using the term “Poor Relief” —  the name by which the social welfare pay-out is commonly referred — rather than the formal “Public Assistance”.

“It’s Public Assistance, and it’s intended to be assistance. And the first thing about the package of social safety nets is that Public Assistance is one aspect of it,” Gonsalves said.

He said his government provides free or near-to-free school meals that are highly subsidised.

“We give you six months’ rent if you are in difficulties. We provide grants, vouchers for uniforms, shoes, school books, the Lotto programme for those going to secondary school and community college where we spend over $500,000 a month there,” Gonsalves said.

“Building materials given out; building houses for people and repairing them. NDP never did that. There is a package of safety net measures, of which the monthly Public Assistance is one.”

He said that after Hurricane Beryl impacted the country on July 1, 2024, his government gave nearly 6,000 people $600 monthly.

“But that is time-bound. Because of the difficulty of people with Beryl, we did it over a year and what we gave to farmers and fishers and other workers and so forth. You have to put Public Assistance as part of the social safety net.”

The prime minister said that Public Assistance was EC$50 when his government came to office in March 2001.

“.. we increase it by six times, $300; not 250,” he said, adding that the NDP does not know what is happening in the country.

“They don’t even know what poor people get. They don’t know what the disadvantaged get –those with disabilities. They don’t know the program for helping children in foster homes.”

In May, Gonsalves, responding in Parliament to a question from opposition senator Shevern John, said families that decide to foster children in St. Vincent and the Grenadines receive an amount ranging from EC$200 to EC$275 per month — about the same amount that the nation’s poorest receive through Public Assistance.

In his comments on Wednesday, he said the NDP was not taking into account the enlargement of the social safety net, including programmes such as YES and SET intended to benefit young people.

He said that the NDP policy on increasing Public Assistance was already causing disquiet among a section of the population.

“Already, people who are on minimum pensions at the NIS — contributory — are asking if we are getting now $320 a month, 160 a fortnight, or just under it in some cases, minimum pension, how can you give 500?”

The prime minister said he had seen a video where the host told a caller on NICE Radio that the NIS pension will also increase with Public Assistance.

“There’s a law governing the NIS,” Gonsalves said, adding that the pension arrangements cannot be adjusted unless there is an actuarial review. 

“You can get away with having the public assistance a little above the minimum pension,” he said, adding that families may get survivors’ benefit, a funeral grant, a maternity grant, which are not discretionary.

Gonsalves said the safety net extends to health services.

“If you over 65, you don’t pay for any prescription; under you pay $5. You get free dialysis. It costs us over $5 million a year to provide free dialysis, and we’re now providing free transport.”

The prime minister said the most expensive surgery at the hospital costs EC$175, with a minor surgery costing EC$100.

“That’s part of the social safety net,” he said and accused the opposition of wanting to privatise healthcare.

 “The NDP is a real and present danger to the people of this country. You see the risk people will run if they elect them people dey?

“I’m giving you chapter and verse. You want the answer. You’re getting the answers this morning from De Comrade, from the head of the fountain,” the prime minister said.