The pandemic pushed up the number of people applying for financial assistance by around 40% from January to November year-on-year, Director of Social Welfare Bureau (IAS) Hon Wai revealed on TDM radio program Macau Forum yesterday.
“The recent situation [Covid-19] has dragged some locals into some short-term financial hardships,” Hon explained.
Despite an uptick in application numbers, Hon stressed that the number of applicants classified as eligible for the subsidy has not changed much from last year.
The financial assistance scheme launched by the IAS is intended to provide individuals or families who are financially impoverished due to social, health, or other special reasons. The scheme comprises of three types of subsidy, namely the general, the non-regular and the special subsidy.
In addition, the application numbers for the the unemployment allowance are expected to reach around 4,500 by the end of 2020 — 2.5 times that of last year’s tally, President of the Social Security Fund’s Administrative Committee Iong Kong Io said in the program.
The total unemployment allowance dispensed to eligible applicants amounted to over MOP14.4 million last year. The total this year is anticipated to surge up to over MOP54 million.
Hon also disclosed that another financial aid scheme — which targets the impoverished single-family household and households with members afflicted by chronic diseases or disability had also increased by 42% this year. Staff Reporter
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