Minister of Social Services Melanie Griffin yesterday stated that the ministry's recently completed rollout of its prepaid debit cards in New Providence would free social workers to more accurately assess clients and crack down on abuses within the system.
Griffin told Guardian Business that while the prepaid Bank of The Bahamas Visa cards, which have been issued to select Social Services clients for use at participating grocery stores and wholesalers, significantly cut down on traditional methods of fraud in social services there are still opportunities for abuse.
"Even with this card we have to guard against fraud. Wherever there's a will, there's a way. People will always find a way to abuse the system but what this system also does is free up the social worker.
"There are certain know your customer (KYC) rules and so we're doing that reassessment process to ensure that everyone lives within the specific area of their center and that they actually still qualify for the assistance," said Griffin following yesterday's launch of the service at the ministry's Horseshoe Drive center.
The cards serve as the first phase of the Christie administration's Social Services safety net. The final reform, Griffin argued, was designed to break the cycle of poverty in local families to reduce the number of Bahamians seeking welfare.
Griffin said that the prepaid card implementation had not only streamlined the process, but also helped considerably in revealing longstanding abuses in the previous paper-based system, which the ministry was in the process on "weeding out."
"There's no doubt that the food coupons were extremely paper intensive as well as manpower intensive. Social workers have been, over the last several years, really just dolling out assistance, unable to do the reassessments that they needed to do.
"Before the long lines at the centers kept the workers on those situations, but now they will be able to go out and do more work with the clients in terms of advising them how to manage their funds and the finances of their entire families," she said.
The program aims to reach an estimated 4,365 persons in New Providence alone by the end of June following the cards' implementation at all four of the ministry's New Providence outreach centers. The 1,051 approved clients utilizing the Horseshoe Drive center will be able to use their prepaid cards by May 27. However, Griffin said that the ministry was already at work providing the necessary training to quickly implement the service in Grand Bahama and the Family Islands.
"We expect sometime in the next few weeks to be able to do the same training in Grand Bahama because we want those clients in Grand Bahama, in Eight Mile Rock, they will hopefully go on by the end of June. And of course then we'll move to Abaco and Andros and the other Family Islands," she said.
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