Delivering his maiden speech in the Lower House of Parliament on Thursday, Member of Parliament (MP) for St John’s Rural West Richard Lewis called for greater focus to be placed on meeting the needs of residents with limited income.
Championing the cause for the needs of the vulnerable, the Opposition MP also called for an increase in the stipend that people receive from the Board of Guardians and other social programmes.
“The current threshold for the People’s Benefit Programme is that you have to earn less than $800 in order to qualify for the subsidy of $215 per month. Think about it for a moment, a household, less than $800.
“A total household income must be far less than the monthly minimum wage in order for you to qualify to get the subsidy. We cannot continue like this.
“The People’s Benefit Programme is a good programme, but I think it’s time for us to revisit this and look at raising it to at least the $1,500 mark, which is the minimum wage, because there are lots of people out there who are suffering,” Lewis said.
He mentioned that it is imperative that the government grasps the concept that while some people are earning slightly over the minimum wage, they may have a number of other responsibilities which makes their burden greater.
And for those on less income still, they could not be feeling the growth that the Gaston Browne-led administration has claimed, Lewis continued.
“The member for City West spoke glowingly of the economic growth in Antigua and Barbuda and if you weren’t living here, you would think that we are living in a land of milk and honey.
“He has presented his gross figures and as they say numbers don’t lie, but you can interpret the numbers the way you want to interpret them and the question is, the growth that is spoken about, who is feeling that?
“If we are honest with ourselves, we will say that the poor and vulnerable [are] not feeling the growth that we are talking about,” Lewis said.
A similar sentiment was shared by his colleague, Leader of the Opposition Jamale Pringle, and Barbuda MP Trevor Walker.
In his three-hour address, Pringle said the budget speech did not reflect the struggles Antiguans and Barbudans face or highlight the avenues in which government plans to address these issues.
The 2023 budget entitled ‘Reset, Recover, Revitalise’ was presented by Prime Minister Gaston Browne on March 2.
