by Linda Straker
- In 2024, SEED ATM card initiative piloted
- 7,745 SEED beneficiaries as of December 2024
- SEED launched in 2012 by Tillman Thomas–NDC administration
Social Development Minister Gloria Thomas has announced that Government will reconfigure the criteria for the Support for Education, Empowerment and Development (SEED) social safety net programme so that more people can be added to the list.
“We think we have to review the programme. I think we have to streamline it. We still recognise that some of the persons who should be on the programme for one reason or the other, they are not being able to get through the system when you input their data,” Thomas said during a recent interview with the Government Information Service (GIS). “We will have to do some reconfiguration, and we will have to more or less do an overhaul of the system so that it will be more in keeping with what it should be.”
In June 2022 there were 7,107 people in the programme according to documents laid in the Lower House of Parliament following questions submitted by Opposition Leader Dr Keith Mitchell. However, the number as of December 2024 was 7,745.
SEED beneficiaries receive cash assistance ranging between EC$50 and EC$700. Last year, a programme began where 60 recipients began piloting an ATM card initiative. Thomas said that the intention is for all SEED recipients to eventually have an ATM card.
To date, Government has not officially disclosed the number of people removed from the programme, only those added to the programme. In the end-of-year interview, Thomas who became minister in January 2024, said that the number of people on the SEED benefit list reflects an increase against the numbers from last year. She did not say what were the 2023 numbers.
Launched in 2012 by the Tillman Thomas–NDC administration, the SEED programme is the coming together of 3 safety net programmes — the Public Assistance Programme, Necessitous Funds and the School Transportation Allowance Scheme. It was established with World Bank guidelines to improve the lives of the most needy.
