Changes coming to cut delays for PATH approval

  

Changes are coming for the Programme of Advancement Through Health and Education (PATH) programme as the government moves to cut bureaucracy and protracted approval times for struggling Jamaicans. 

 

Minister of Labour and Social Security Pearnel Charles Jr. says a review of PATH revealed that the three-step process to integrate needy Jamaicans has been slow and cumbersome.

 

"Getting unto PATH was difficult. Number 1, a preliminary assessment using the Beneficiary Management Information System, the BMIS, steps 2 and 3, the verification and orientation, could at times be delayed for months. Our most recent data found that those persons that did preliminary assessment, more than 80 per cent of them, eventually after being provisionally approved, would be verified. Effective immediately, things will change," the minister declared.

 

"All eligible who are provisionally approved under step 1, which is the BMIS assessment process, will no longer face unnecessary delays under this government. If you are provisionally approved based on the data that we have, you will advance immediately to a temporary payable status, once confirmed by the BMIS system, and you will start to be paid," said Minister Charles, who was making his contribution to the sectoral debate in the House of Representatives on Tuesday afternoon.  

 

The minister said the orientation and verification process will also be strengthened, adding that the recertification process will be made more efficient.

 

"Beneficiaries who were previously stalled within the recertification process due to unresolved status update issues will now immediately be progressively released and regularised as the ministry accelerates the reconciliation and updating of affected cases. This reform will allow eligible beneficiaries to transition into their correct benefit category more efficiently. We will also be advancing efforts to rid the programme of persons who are not eligible or no longer eligible to remain on PATH but are still getting benefit," he advised.