SEA moving 5 000 beneficiaries to direct deposits

T he Social Empowerment Agency (SEA) is moving about 5 000 National Assistance Grant beneficiaries from cheques to direct deposits, Minister of People Empowerment and Elder Affairs Adrian Forde announced on Friday. The move follows a recent cheque-printing issue which inconvenienced some SEA clients in accessing their assistance. Forde told a press conference that the government can no longer operate in an “anachronistic way”. The SEA – which has amalgamated the former welfare and child care agencies – will actively roll out direct payments over the next couple of months, stressing that the move is the “right” and “appropriate” thing to do. “We are simply telling Barbadians, irrespective of their banking institution.

We are here willing, ready and able to work with you so that there will be a seamless transition,” said Forde, who also encouraged the use of BimPay, the Central Bank’s national payment platform. He told reporters: “There’s not a hard and fast decision in terms of when we will operationalise it. We are going to give Barbadians time to be part of the whole process. We have created a barcode system and an e-link/digital link so that persons can register. What we’ll be asking persons over the next couple of weeks to do is to fill out a form that will be generated. It will be posted to every single one of our clients so that their information can be held within the strictest of confidence that is expected with this type of transition” The minister sought to assure SEA clients that there would not be a strict deadline to make the transition. “I just wanted to tell Barbadians we are not putting a set time frame to have this; we are encouraging Barbadians to partner with us in this process. We’re not telling them within the next couple of weeks that it has to be,…