St Kitts and Nevis govt shares update on application process for Poverty Alleviation Programme

St Kitts and Nevis: The Ministry of Social Development and Gender Affairs of St Kitts and Nevis shared the update on the application process for the Poverty Alleviation Programme. 

The Ministry announced that around 9,094 applications were fully completed and accepted for further review, verification and processing. Now the review will include the eligibility criteria of the household earning less than XCD$3,000 per month. 

The Ministry further stated that around 8,985 applicants had been accepted based on self-reported earnings. The Ministry has also been conducting verification of employment and income status of eligible applicants with assistance from the Social Security Board.

The Cabinet of St Kitts and Nevis approved the following priority households to receive payment from the Poverty Alleviation Programme:

• Households headed by seniors: Persons who are 62 years and older are eligible.
• Households headed by persons with disabilities: Households headed by persons with disabilities – that is persons who identified themselves as the main applicant for the benefit and indicated that they have a disability

1. Households with minor children – that is unemployed and employed persons who identified themselves as the main applicant and whose households contain children under the age of 18. Unemployed heads of households with minor children will be prioritized within this category.

The first payment cycle of the Poverty Alleviation Program will be made to households headed by seniors and persons with disabilities only by Monday February 06th 2023. All future payments to additional categories of beneficiaries will be made by the last working day of each month inclusive of February 2023.

The Department of Community Development and Social Services will continue to verify the application details of eligible applicants to complete the review process for payment of additional persons by February 28th 2023. Information on the status of all submitted applications will be updated via the programme application portal in the upcoming weeks.