Women, Children and Social Protection Minister Lynda Tabuya is urging social welfare beneficiaries facing discrepancies in their allowances to visit their nearest social protection office.
This comes as complaints have been raised with this newspaper that some social welfare recipients have been receiving less than the amount announced in the 2023/2024 national budget.
An 87-year-old man from Navua claims that for September’s allowance, he received $115 whereas he is supposed to be receiving $125 as per the budget announcement.
He said his bus fare allowance has also been reduced from the expected amount of $40 to just $7.
Ms Tabuya said to correct any unintended errors in the social protection scheme payment system, it needs to receive formal complaints so that it can looked at on a case-by-case basis.
“Like any complaints, we need to receive these formally and we look at them on a case-by-case basis with the aim of correcting any inadvertent errors in the system,” she said.
“We remain committed to the increases in social protection allowances and encourage clients to register their complaints directly with our nearest social protection office.”
