A Cayman Islands Cabinet minister is asking his government’s finance committee for more welfare money for financial assistance programmes, the Cayman News Service has reported.

One concern is that with a programme supporting about 1,800 families with some kind of social assistance at a cost of about CI$3 million ($3.6 million) a month, more is needed to be done to measure and monitor the programme’s long-term impact.

The Caribbean territory is facing the weight of publicly-funded financial assistance to a rising number of residents, similar to challenges faced here at home.

Isaac Rankine, the Social Development Minister, was discussing the Department of Financial Assistance, with “an annual budget that is now approaching CI$50 million to help around 3,000 individuals with varying levels of support”, CNS said.

The latest Bermuda Government figures published this February for fiscal year 2024/2025 said Bermuda's Department of Financial Assistance supported a monthly average of 1,977 individual recipients through its core Financial Assistance Programme.

Grants directly supporting financial assistance and child daycare allowance recipients rose 5 per cent to $51.74 million.

Just last Friday, Bermuda’s Parliament approved an extra $150,000 for the Hardship Fund, designed to help those in dire financial straits navigate their money problems.

CNS said the Cayman Government has been transitioning to “outcome-based budgeting, which will increasingly require public entities not only to report what was spent and what services were delivered, but to show the difference that expenditure made”.

The full implementation of the outcome-based budgeting framework is being delayed until the 2030-31 budget cycle.