$360 Assistance Update: More Payout Today, A-G Announces

There will be more $360 payouts to Fijians this week announced Attorney-General and Minister for Economy Aiyaz Sayed-Khaiyum last night as he gave an update on the unemployment benefit payout.

He said 3900 Fijians would be paid out today. As of this week, more than $100 million has been paid out in the assistance.

Mr Sayed-Khaiyum said adding to the 233,893 Fijians paid over the last weekend, another 46,800 Fijians had been paid out since Monday this week.

Once more verification of all the applications was complete another 6850 Fijians would be paid out in the next week.

He said Fijians who had applied for the assistance but were yet to get their first dose of the vaccination had until close of business today to get vaccinated and provide the information so they too could receive the assistance.

Mr Sayed-Khaiyun said the team verifying the application found that 21 people had made applications on behalf of their deceased relatives.

He said 4000 civil servants including municipal council workers applied and their names would be given to their relevant employers for disciplinary action.

Mr Sayed-Khaiyum apologized to Fijians who had met all the criteria but had not received the assistance.

He said this was result of some anomalies they found, like the recording of data within their system.

Mr Sayed-Khaiyum said people must understand that this assistance was meant for those who were unemployed.

As announced earlier by Mr Sayed-Khaiyum the second installment of the $360 assistance would be made early November before Diwali.

Feedback:  shelveen.chand@fijisun.com.fj