The Department of Financial Assistance has launched an initiative to encourage the unemployed back into work. According to Minister of Social Rehabilitation Dale Butler, 49 of the 700 people being helped by the Department are classed as able-bodied and unemployed.

The Department is working in tandem with the Departments of Labour, Immigration and Training as well as the National Training Board and non-Governmental organisations to provide avenues to enhance the employability of these people in particular.

Although the scheme is informal rather than mandatory at this time, the Minister said it is already reaping results, especially with single mothers who are being helped to access training to boost their employment prospects.

The whole idea, he told the House of Assembly in a speech on Friday, is to encourage self-sufficiency and financial independence.

“It has long been the thought that our clients should be encouraged to take some form of a job to begin to develop a work ethic while still receiving assistance,” he said.

“By doing this, they will decrease request of a financial award from the Department, although we will still supplement their needs, but more importantly, begin to increase their self-esteem and self-confidence to commence a journey on the road to employability and self-sufficiency and be able to graduate from the need for Government assistance.”