Minister Furbert On Personal Care Allowance
The Department of Financial Assistance was given a supplementary of $911,000 to provide a monthly Personal Care Allowance of $100 to all Financial Assistance clients who reside in rest homes and nursing homes, Minister of Youth, Social Development and Seniors Tinée Furbert said.
Speaking in the House of Assembly, the Minister said, “I rise before this Honourable House to lay for information the Financial Assistance Amendment Regulations 2024. The Amendment to the Financial Assistance Regulations 2004 added an expenditure line item for a $100 Personal Care Allowance in the Table of Allowable Expenses.
“I remind members of this House of the significant investment that was made for the provision of expanded social services for the 2024/25 financial year, as part of the Government’s mid-year review in September 2024. This included funding for a monthly personal care allowance for Financial Assistance clients in rest and nursing homes.
“Many financial assistance clients who reside in rest and nursing homes including those without critical family support, already have the high expense of rest and nursing home fees ranging from $5,000 to $12,000, and, cannot support their basic hygiene needs and purchase the personal care products and services that you and I, and my Honourable colleagues in this House tend to take for granted. Several residents have expressed their concerns about this and having no money to purchase such items.
“Administrators at the rest and nursing homes have shared that they do not have the funds to purchase personal care products and services for residents. Consequently, some families provide personal care products and services for their loved ones, some do not, and those residents with no family support tend to go without these basic personal care items.
“The Department of Financial Assistance was given a supplementary of $911,000 that was approved by this House in October 2024, to provide a monthly Personal Care Allowance of $100 to all Financial Assistance clients who reside in rest homes and nursing homes. The monthly allowance will allow for the purchase of personal care and health care goods and services, such as toiletries and grooming services.
“The Department of Financial Assistance has established a framework to ensure that all financial assistance clients in licensed rest and nursing homes receive a monthly personal care allowance of $100. This includes direct deposit into their client’s bank account for access by the client or those deemed to be carers of their clients, or via their respective rest and nursing home.
“Currently, 240 FA clients will receive the $100 personal care allowance, of which 220 clients are pensioners and 20 clients are persons with a disability.
“For those clients who will be paid their $100 personal care allowance via the rest or the nursing homes, the Department has visited with all the licensed facilities to discuss how this could be processed. An agreement was reached that a Memorandum of Understanding would be established stating that the $100 will be used to purchase personal care items and other sundry items on behalf of the FA clients.
“The first payout of the $100 personal care allowance to FA clients residing in licensed rest and nursing homes will occur in May 2025.”
The Minister’s full statement follows below:
Mr. Speaker, This morning, I rise before this Honourable House to lay for information the Financial Assistance Amendment Regulations 2024. The Amendment to the Financial Assistance Regulations 2004 added an expenditure line item for a $100 Personal Care Allowance in the Table of Allowable Expenses.
Mr. Speaker, I remind members of this House of the significant investment that was made for the provision of expanded social services for the 2024/25 financial year, as part of the Government’s mid-year review in September 2024. This included funding for a monthly personal care allowance for Financial Assistance clients in rest and nursing homes.
Mr. Speaker, Many financial assistance clients who reside in rest and nursing homes including those without critical family support, already have the high expense of rest and nursing home fees ranging from $5,000 to $12,000, and, cannot support their basic hygiene needs and purchase the personal care products and services that you and I, and my Honourable colleagues in this House tend to take for granted. Several residents have expressed their concerns about this and having no money to purchase such items.
Let me add, Mr. Speaker, Administrators at the rest and nursing homes have shared that they do not have the funds to purchase personal care products and services for residents. Consequently, some families provide personal care products and services for their loved ones, some do not, and those residents with no family support tend to go without these basic personal care items.
Mr. Speaker, The Department of Financial Assistance was given a supplementary of $911,000 that was approved by this House in October 2024, to provide a monthly Personal Care Allowance of $100 to all Financial Assistance clients who reside in rest homes and nursing homes. The monthly allowance will allow for the purchase of personal care and health care goods and services, such as toiletries and grooming services.
Mr. Speaker, Commencing in November 2024, the Department worked assiduously with the Ministry of Justice as an amendment was needed to legislation that is, the Financial Assistance Regulations 2004, to add an expenditure line item for Personal Care Allowance in the Table of Allowable Expenses to legally facilitate the $100 Personal Care Allowance. The amendment to the legislation was completed and gazetted in December 2024 and became effective on February 1st 2025.
Mr. Speaker, The Department of Financial Assistance has established a framework to ensure that all financial assistance clients in licensed rest and nursing homes receive a monthly personal care allowance of $100. This includes direct deposit into their client’s bank account for access by the client or those deemed to be carers of their clients, or via their respective rest and nursing home.
Mr. Speaker, Currently, 240 FA clients will receive the $100 personal care allowance, of which 220 clients are pensioners and 20 clients are persons with a disability. In preparation to execute the payment to the 240 clients, the Financial Assistance Software System had to be adjusted to include a line item for the personal care allowance. Additionally, the Department of Financial Assistance had to make sure every client had a valid bank account in the System. This has been a tedious exercise as accuracy is important for ensuring that the right information is in the System, particularly in those instances where changes were needed to bank accounts or new bank accounts were added.
Mr. Speaker, For those clients who will be paid their $100 personal care allowance via the rest or the nursing homes, the Department has visited with all the licensed facilities to discuss how this could be processed. An agreement was reached that a Memorandum of Understanding would be established stating that the $100 will be used to purchase personal care items and other sundry items on behalf of the FA clients. These logistics should be all finalized by the end of April.
Mr. Speaker, I am pleased to report that the first payout of the $100 personal care allowance to FA clients residing in licensed rest and nursing homes will occur in May 2025.
With that, Mr. Speaker, I now table for the information of the House, the Financial Assistance Amendment Regulations 2024.
Thank You, Mr. Speaker
You should not be paying money for the benefit of personal care items to care homes. This is ripe for abuse.
Evidence of purchase of personal care items needs to be received and audited.
Data needs to be acaptured and cross analyses to ensure once receipt is not used multiple times.
Do you truly realize that due to cost of living prices now, truly $100.00 is barely enough for personal care for anyone. Adult diapers, body wash, lotion, toothpaste and new brushes – all dental care and more.
Ms T . Furbert
You are most privileged to hear this story about a certain up market rest home where my mother chose to spend the rest of her days ,unfortunately, mother passed with a dose of pneumonia which she either caught in the hospital or at the rest home who knows ?
Every year my father would give my mother a small token of gold that was his way of building a nest egg .
What does a 90 year old want a pot of gold for ?
When the lawers came to settle the estate there was no gold ?
You can involve the police to investigate over say 100 resident , don’t think so, that would be a monumental crisis , if you looking to create 50 heart atacks and all that that goes with that.
The question is where did the bulion go?
No body knows ,or wants to know ,however , there are a list of suspects as long at your arm the top of the list , was take a wild guess could be not the other son? and you will not be to far wrong to guess at it ! , never the less it was not found in the safe deposit , but you take another 50 guess . the lawyer was my brothers son he is up with the angels.
It goes this way ,if you have $5,000. to $12,000. per month for a rest home you do not realy need much else .
There is always a question in life and that is” how much, is never enough enough” ?
There is well known popular song “Never Enough “
THE ECONONY.
From time to time we find the polititions will pick up on their favorite topics in order to inform the public of their latest grievances,which may have laid dormant for many years ,the list must be a mile long .
is that designed to convince their voters that they are doing “something “.
This word” something” get on the table and leads to a path to no where .
No body knows what that ” something ” realy is or have we had it too good for too long?
The topic on seniors and education get stuck in neutral while the topic on the economy and taxation is waiting to be debated. GOME ON. !
You can bet there will be some delays.
I am not even sure if a sumit will work? you are goin to need some very strict rules .
All it takes is money, being that we do not have, i mean in reserves .
We can not have reserves if we owe money .
May i ask, what are other countries doing about their similar circumstances.
We have often heard that Bermuda is presently in a financial crisis we owe more the we take in .
We can not keep taking money from the taxpayer . if the tax payers are suffering, that has also to includer the Government.
The public are not the only ones in hot water, have they got any reserves, i doubt it.
Many paid on Friday broke on Monday . is that how we live ? thay is no fun !
Sad to say there is no quick fix .
if you reduce taxes the government then can not pay its bills . if you pay government we can not pay our bills
With STALEMATE. there are no winners in the game chess .
You know the Government is financing your power bill as they get that money from taxation.
it would apear the we are unable to come up with any practical solution other than a reduction in cost of merchandise that will reduce profits which will impact jobs and put people out of work which will then impact the standard of living for many in the same household. STALEMATE
there is a limit to how much the costof living can be reduced.
a Fish is not a Duck .
Every body have to learn to go with of the luxuries including Government . .
Government has also got to slow down to stay afloat.
This cut back has to include every body.
We talk about housing.
Do you not know that owning a house in it self creates a momnumental burden forcing a family of four to work 7 days a week including nights also .
Don’t argue with me ,as i and my family have been there and that was 60 years ago.
So, stop this fantacy build illusion of afordable housing that to day no that longer is achievable we have price inflation and salaries that can not keep up as the price hike was excessive .
We have to accept the fact that cutting some of the corners will not work .
We have to cut all the corners.
We have to work with the Government and the Government has to work with us, it is not them and us any more .
I have a target list of companies one quietly went underboth threy and others have caused this problem locally one just announce a $4, million dollar profit .
is that every year? as that can be gone in under 10 seconds .
Can we work 7 days a week ? yes you have no choise !
Get used to it !
We ALL have to learn to go with the flow.
Advice to the summit hit on every thing leave nothing to chance .
Good intentions I suppose but wide open for abuse. Who gets the money? Who does the shopping? Who does the paperwork to verify that the money has been spent on the senior allocated the money. Who checks to see that the paperwork is correct? Who pays for all of this paperwork?
Looks good. Sounds good. Doomed to failure before it even starts. A make work exercise for the CS that will cost more than the benefit to the senior.
“This includes direct deposit into their client’s bank account”
I am pretty sure it says for those that are on financial assistance. Every senior in a nursing home is not on financial assistance. Therefore I dont believe they would qualify. This benefit is for those who financially qualify for it due to being on FA.