A Government programme to send behaviourally challenged students overseas for treatment has seen its funding restored.Youth Minister Glenn Blakeney said the Psycho-Educational Programme would see its budget restored to $3.12 million for the coming fiscal year.Mr Blakeney said he made last year’s “bold cut” of $1 million after an appraisal of the programme, but now felt there was often no readily available treatment on the Island for young people facing “acute challenges”.“Any available facilities that provide stable care in Bermuda will be consulted first,” the Minister said, saying that those on the “critical edge” would be assessed before being sent overseas.Mr Blakeney also gave a figure of just under $40 million for financial assistance in the coming year, based on projected demand. There are 1,363 people who are currently receiving assistance.“The majority are not people that could be out there working,” Mr Blakeney said. “Just over 1,000 of them are senior citizens or the disabled.”Costs have been cut on the Mirrors Programme, but middle school students at Sandys Secondary and the Whitney Institute are still receiving assistance, with 84 currently enrolled through June this year. Residential programmes will be hosted at Warwick Camp by the Bermuda Regiment, he said.Mirrors has seen its budget reduced by $392,000, to $1.3 million.During this Parliamentary session, Mr Blakeney added, Government will also undo finance regulations that barred applicants for financial assistance from receiving aid if their assets, including property, exceeded $5,000.Mr Blakeney acknowledged the unintended impact caused on seniors who owned homes or had an interest in real estate, and estimated extra costs of $250,000 for the coming fiscal year as new seniors who would have been ineligible are allowed to sign on for financial assistance.Health Minister Zane DeSilva joined Mr Blakeney for a joint press conference on changes to the budgets for their respective ministries.Only “catastrophe” would cause Government to go over its cap of $104 million on the Hospital Subsidy for the coming year, Mr DeSilva said.If hospital bills were to go substantially over the limit, the Minister conceded that Government would dip into the Consolidated Fund.“My hope is that the Bermudian people will change their lifestyles a bit,” he said.Praising the Bermuda Hospitals for making substantial savings over the past year, Mr DeSilva also said the BHB “100 percent” supported the limit set on Government’s subsidy, which is designed to keep hospital costs down.