My savings are running low – father of four - Government ponders redirecting PATH school funding
Published:Monday | March 16, 2020 | 12:20 AMDanae Hyman/Staff Reporter
With Jamaica now recording its 10th case of the novel coronavirus, at least one resident of Denham Town, west Kingston, has expressed that he is worried – not about getting sick but about how he will provide for his family amid the danger of being laid off as the wheels of commerce grind to a halt.
Wayne Smith, a clothing and shoes vendor in downtown Kingston, said that he was told by his supervisor to not return to work until Friday. But even then, he fears the possibility that he, along with three of his co-workers, might not have a job to go back to.
“So me affi deh here and sell CD until then, fi see what’s up. Everything drop back and slow down,” Smith told The Gleaner yesterday.
“Even some of my other colleagues and friends said they are not sure what they are going to do next week or for the next three weeks,” he added.
The father of four said that he has had to be dipping into his savings to feed himself and his children but that his cash is depleting – fast.
“Annu like me rich. A ghetto me live inna, so how long me can feed me youth them offa savings?” Smith questioned.
He continued: “Nobody want to know that their kids are the underdog. Because even wholesales are gonna lock at any moment, and everybody going to want to go and grab something, so imagine having four different babymother, and each one want you to go grab something before it lock.”
Smith further disclosed that along with responsibility for his children and their mothers, he also pays rent for the home where he resides.
help for poor
He said that one of his children’s mothers was also sent on mandatory leave without pay for three days from a popular restaurant in New Kingston because revenue had dried up after Jamaica confirmed its first COVID-19 case last week.
The Government is mulling over redirecting funding initially channelled to schools for funding breakfast and lunch for poor children under the Programme of Advancement Through Health and Education, The Gleaner has learnt. Schools were ordered closed last Friday, which means that poor parents will now have to find two more meals for students who were beneficiaries of a state subvention.
The Government has $7 billion in contingency funding for economic and other shocks as the Jamaican economy slows down to fight the virus.
In an op-ed in the March 15, 2020, edition of The Sunday Gleaner, Finance and the Public Service Minister Dr Nigel Clarke said that state intervention would be geared towards reducing “disruption to employment” and preserving “productive capacity”.
“Possibilities include, for example, various forms of temporary and targeted wage subsidies that benefit workers and the businesses in targeted sectors that keep workers employed. Another possibility is temporary debt-service support and other forms of cash transfers for MSMEs and workers in targeted sectors to lessen the chances of COVID-19-related bankruptcies, for example. Other potential measures are also being considered,” Clarke wrote.
In the meantime, the Ministry of Labour has been urging employers to start implementing flexiwork arrangements as a containment measure against the workplace spread of SARS-CoV-2 and to protect their customers.
Also, Dunstan Bryan, permanent secretary in the Ministry of Health & Wellness, said that employees who are subject to quarantine or isolation for the novel coronavirus should not lose that vacation leave entitlement during that time.