Over 6,000 people are receiving food assistance from the government through its prepaid cards system, Minister of Social Services Melanie Griffin said yesterday.

“As of July 31, 2015, a total of 6,232 beneficiaries were receiving food assistance by way of the prepaid card,” she said during a communication. “This figure includes 5,254 beneficiaries in New Providence and 978 in Grand Bahama.”

The prepaid Visa card for the government’s food assistance program, operated by the Department of Social Services, was introduced late last year to replace the coupon system that has been harshly criticized over the years.

“The beneficiaries welcome this new method, which makes their lives as well as the lives of the staff at the centers much easier,” Griffin said. “We have put in place certain restrictions with the utilization of the card. The purpose of the card is to ensure that persons have access to food; hence the card can only be used at food stores and wholesale food establishments."

“Regular reports are received on the usage of the cards and there have been some instances of persons attempting to utilize the card at unauthorized establishments and these persons were counseled by their caseworkers.”

Bank of The Bahamas has partnered with the government to provide the cards. Griffin said a verification and reassessment exercise was conducted on every food assistance beneficiary to determine whether they continued to be eligible to receive assistance. Griffin said as a result, scores of individuals were deemed ineligible for continuation on the program and were ejected. However, Griffin said in the majority of cases, those people were given a grace period before the paper coupon was discontinued.

The department also established an appeals process to benefit those who feel like they were wronged by the decision to eject them from the program.

The introduction of the Visa card is a precursor to the government’s wider social safety net reform program, which is being conducted with $7.5 million in financing from the Inter-American Development Bank (IDB). Those who qualify for the program will be issued cards and the Department of Social Services will transfer funds onto those cards.

According to statistics, roughly 43,000 people were living below the poverty line when a survey was conducted in 2013.

“This reform of the social safety net is intended to modernize the entire social assistance delivery machinery and will include the introduction of a conditional cash transfer program, which is used in many countries throughout the world, including some of our neighbors in the Caribbean,” Griffin said.