By KRYSTEL ROLLE, NG Staff Reporter

The temporary unemployment assistance program, which will likely be fashioned after the unemployment program in the United States and is meant to help laid off Bahamians for up to six months, will be announced "very shortly," Labour Minister Dion Foulkes revealed yesterday.

He was referring to the temporary assistance program for the unemployed that Prime Minister Hubert Ingraham announced earlier this month during a national address on the state of the economy.

"It's the first time that we will introduce this program," said Minister Foulkes. "We've never had an unemployment scheme in The Bahamas. As you know, in the United States if you lose your job today you can go to the labor department and get assistance for up to six months and then it terminates. That six months gives you the opportunity to either find another job to continue to pay your bills and that is what we intend to do here," he told reporters outside the Senate yesterday morning.

The National Insurance Board is developing the program to assist the persons who are contributors to National Insurance who have lost their jobs.

When pressed for further details, the minister said, "The details have not been worked out, but it will be announced very shortly."

Earlier this month, the PM explained that in order to benefit from the program, a person must have been unemployed for a specific period of time and a contributor to NIB for a minimum number of years. He noted that some of the excess funds accumulated in the Medical Benefit Branch of the NIB Fund will be used to provide weekly unemployment assistance payments to workers who have recently become unemployed or placed on reduced work weeks.
The initiative was announced in the face of expectations that unemployment levels could rise to lower double digits.

The unemployment rate in 2008 is 8.7 percent, according to the latest available statistics. However more than 1,000 persons have been laid up since that figure was compiled.

Hence, Foulkes said the initiative is one that is "desperately needed."

Additionally, Foulkes said the government has allocated an additional $6 million to the Department of Social Services, which he said will go a long way to assist the most disadvantaged in the nation.

He explained that the money will sustain the social service program which provides aid packages to assist those in need.

The new schedule of increases in assistance to the poor came into effect on October 1.

This latest package saw an increase in a number of areas including funeral assistance, uniform and shoes allowance for children emergency and monthly food allowance, and utility payments among other things.

Foulkes said the government will commence several other initiatives to provide jobs for Bahamians before Christmas.

He said the massive economic system package will begin "very shortly."

"We are also going to launch a massive beautification program. We are going to clean this island and it's going to be beautiful. The government intends to employ hundreds, if not thousands through that program," he said.

"The Minister of Works (Neko Grant) is also going to fast track its capital projects so that we can maximize the amount of persons working on those," Foulkes said. "The government also hopes to re-double the housing program which is currently employing up to 1,000 persons.

"(The Department of Housing ) is building now approximately 300 homes and we want to redouble that effort and maybe perhaps bring that number up to 2,000 persons and make up some of the slack in the construction industry," said Foulkes.

Recently, president of the Bahamian Contractors Association Stephen Wrinkle told The Guardian that the re-launch of the housing program is the single most important thing that government has done to help the housing sector, which has been struggling in the past months.