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Public Assistance registration sees confusion
People lined up for hours outside of the RDC office.
Over the last few days, the office of the Region Three Democratic Council (RDC) has been in a state of confusion, as people waited to be re-registered to be eligible for Public Assistance.
According to the Chairman of the RDC for Region Three, Julius Faerber, persons receiving Public Assistance need to renew their forms every year, in order to keep on receiving assistance from the Government.
The renewal for persons living on the West Bank of Demerara took three days and was completed on Thursday. In those three days, there was confusion at the RDC office in Vreed-en-Hoop, as multitudes of persons came to renew their Public Assistance forms.
“It was done in a haphazard manner,” said Faerber.
The exercise was initially done on a first-come first-served basis, but a numbering system was introduced on the second day of re-registration. “Persons living with disabilities were given priority,” noted Faerber.
He said that he thought that the process would have been done in a much more orderly fashion, since lessons had been learnt from the confusion that ensued from the re-registration for the West Bank Demerara.
He said that he thought the re-registration was on track, and said that the renewal process would be taken to the West Coast Demerara in the coming week. Since the West Coast Demerara is a much bigger area, and the population is much more spread out, Faerber estimates that the process would take approximately one week.
Despite the Regional Chairman’s thoughts, many persons waiting for their forms to be renewed alleged that there were serious levels of corruption in the whole process.
“The people at the door are just turning away people who come to get their forms renewed,” said one woman. “They are letting other people that they know come to the front of the line. It is not fair, after we have been waiting here for so long.”
One of the single-parent mothers who waited outside of the RDC office trying to renew her forms said that for two days she had gone to the RDC office at 6:00 hours, since persons applying were told to go there early.
She said that even though she was one of the first persons there, she still did not get through.
This, she said, was due to the fact that persons working at the RDC office picked certain people to go in, despite the number system that was in place.
“They (RDC staffers) picked people to go in, and everyone else had to wait,” she said.
She added that she waited until 18:00 hours, hoping that she would be called in to renew her Public Assistance forms. She was not called.
The single parent of five children said that approximately 40 other persons like herself did not get through, though they waited. She said that there was supposed to be another re-registration exercise on February 6.
“I sell at a sweetie stand,” she said. “And if I don’t sell then me and my children do not eat.” She explained that she had tried for three years before she got through with Public Assistance, but highlighted that every year persons faced the same problems when they tried to get their forms renewed.
She noted that much criticism was given to parents on Public Assistance, saying that their children were not in school.
This was not the case with every single parent on Public Assistance, since her children were all attending school, and were doing quite well, she said.
“If I get through with the Public Assistance, I will be able to be a better mother to my children,” she said.
She said that she would keep on trying to get whatever assistance she could, to help her raise her children.
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