Column: ‘People At Heart Of PLP’s Agenda’
[Opinion column written by MP Derrick Burgess]
The PLP continues to have the people of Bermuda at the heart of it’s agenda. The Government made a commitment to strengthen social protections and provide relief to families.
Strengthening Social protections
In May of this year the Government released a policy paper highlighting elements of it’s Financial Assistance Reform Strategy, a strategy aimed at providing additional social and economic protections to ensure that Bermudian families are supported.
Enhancements will include, but are not limited to:
- expanding eligibility by expanding asset restrictions from $500 to $5000;
- allowing recipients to retain partial income from work, so that work benefits a families financial wellbeing;
- improving support to assist Bermudian children with greater access to child day care and child maintenance, by increasing the maximum payout per child from $800 to $900 and increasing the $55,000 income cap to $130,000 household income cap;
- adding new funding schemes to allow the receipt of ‘gifts’ up to $2500; and
- creating short-term funding for sudden hardships that equates to a maximum of $1500 for up to 3 months.
The proposed reform initiatives will be made in this legislative session to provide enhanced protections to individuals, and families in need.
Providing Relief to Families
The PLP Government has a proud record of upholding its promises to the people of Bermuda, this has been demonstrated by reducing the tax burden for Bermudian families.
In the February 2022/23 Budget Statement, this Government promised to provide “relief now and more relief to come”, and this was done by:
- reducing taxes for those making less than $96,000;
- reducing private vehicle licensing fees by 10%; and,
- not increasing Government fees since 2018.
In March, the Government provided further relief by:
- Freezing fuel prices, saving Bermudian families $23 and taxi and minibus operators $35 at the pump each month after stopping what was previously an automatic process of increasing fuel prices.
- Extending duty relief on fuel importation to ensure the ongoing freeze in fuel prices meant that more money remained in the pockets of Bermudian families, taxi operators and minibus drivers.
- In a direct response to the increasing cost of goods, the Government implemented legislation to drop duty rates on a list of 21 essential items. The Cost of Living Commission Amendment Act reduces the duty on these items to 0%, reducing consumer costs.
The work being done by the PLP Government emanates from the social justice ethos which is at the core of the Progressive Labour Party’s values. The above initiatives demonstrate that the Government has remained relentless in its commitment to the People of Bermuda. There is much work that has been done and still much work left to do. What is clear is that the PLP Government has been laser focused on implementing change that will have a positive impact on the lives of the People of Bermuda.
- MP Derrick Burgess
ROTFL!
Bie, I would said shut de front door but de money iz goin out de back!!
Yet we are still in the Guinness World Book of records as having the highest cost of living. Not something to be proud of at all, people are being squeezed. All these increased benefits cost money, that money doesn’t grow on trees, it comes from taxes, price increases and fees, or you borrow it and because of the interest, lose the ability to do things like resurface roads, repair infrastructure, build a new causeway, maintain the swing bridge, and the like. People are not at the heart of the PLP’s agend, Votes, maintaining power and propaganda for self serving politicians is what is at the heart of the PLP’s agenda.
An excellent summary of where the PLP’s priorities lie. It’s not with the people that’s for sure. Can’t even change a light bulb in the Gibbs Hill lighthouse.
The PLP are giving away thousands of free LED lightbulbs! Certainly, there must be one bulb in there for Gibbs Hill Lighthouse!
Whatever happened to this bright idea anyway? Did somebody get paid again and not deliver? Did anyone reading this ever get their free LED lightbulb?
when one has to look hard and try to find a few items they (plp politicians) are proud of shows how they are scoring themselves. They are proud of raising how much they shell out for people which has to come from somewhere btw instead of building an economy and jobs and getting people back to work. If one was to list the failures of the plp just over the last 7 years it would scare you let alone go back to 1998. you dont go from 0 to 3 billion in debt by doing a good job
Does he believe his own PR BS. The rest of can see through this but the real question is are we willing to do anything about it at the next election ???
So close …it’s not the people at the heart or you’re agenda. What you got us by is a little lower than that.
So funny. Especially coming from him. Most expensive place to live in the world and they have done nothing but take from us. What was the numbers at the last election? Thank you to all who voted for these clowns.
“Most expensive place to live in the world”
Please do not bandy about such comments as if they were fact. According to the World Economic Forum, Bermuda is not even in the top 10.
And for “hey” (above) the Guinness World Book of Records does not rank the most expensive places to live, it simply report the findings of The Economist Intelligence Unit. The Economist Intelligence Unit identifies Singapore, not Bermuda, as the most expensive place to live (in 2018).
The website “World Population Review” details 3 surveys looking at the most expensive countries in the world. In 2 of the 3 surveys, Bermuda is top of the list. The 3rd survey did not track Bermuda at all.
The WEF survey is of ‘expensive cities’, and seems to exclude smaller countries. Monaco is not mentioned, for example. They don’t publish a full list, as far as I can see, so it’s not possible to determine whether Bermuda is even considered.
The Economist survey consider 173 major cities, and it is also not clear whether Hamilton would have been considered at all.
There doesn’t seem to be any doubt that we’re up there in among the most expensive places to live in the world.