$5B cost-of-living allocation: One-off bonus for public servants, pensioners, PWDs – Pres Ali announces

….farmers, CIIP workers to also benefit

Utilising the $5 billion that was set aside for measures to offset the rising cost of living for Guyanese, the Guyana Government has rolled out a series of measures that will see various categories of persons benefiting including public servants; old age pensioners; persons living with disabilities (PWDs); farmers and community enhancement workers.
In the 2023 Budget, the Government allocated $5 billion for cost-of-living measures to alleviate the impact of increases in prices owing to global developments.
On Thursday, President Dr Irfaan Ali announced that this money would be used to pay a $25,000 one-off bonus to all public servants next month. Among the public servants, which include teachers and members of the Disciplined Services, to benefit from this payout are staff of semi-autonomous agencies and public enterprises such as entities like the Guyana Sugar Corporation (GuySuCo).
“So, all workers in this category will receive a one-off $25,000 bonus payable in December 2023. This will benefit 67,000 workers across the spectrum of these categories; 67,000 workers at a cost of $1.7 billion. These adjustments will benefit workers including Policemen and women, Prison Officers, soldiers, nurses, and doctors, as would also … employees of public enterprises, including GuySuCo, GPL (Guyana Power and Light Inc), and NIS (National Insurance Scheme),” the President announced.
According to the Head of State, this will be separate from the annual across-the-board salary increase for the public servants, teachers, and members of the Disciplined Services, which, he indicated, would be announced “very shortly”.
In November 2022, President Ali had announced an eight per cent salary increase for all public servants and a one-month bonus for the Joint Services, which saw more than 52,000 employees in the Public Sector benefiting.
During Thursday’s announcements, the Head of State announced some $1.9 billion in salary adjustments and various allowances, including duty-free concessions, for graduate teachers.

Pensioners and PWDs
Meanwhile, old age pensioners will also receive a $25,000 one-off payment in December, the Guyanese Leader revealed on Thursday. According to Ali, over 72,000 pensioners will benefit from this intervention which costs $1.8 billion.
This is not the first time the Government is making a one-off payment to support elderly citizens. Last year, a one-off grant of $28,000 was paid to all old-age pensioners, and in 2021, they received a $25,000 one-off grant.
Under the Ali-led Administration, the old age pension has been increased from $20,500 in 2020 to $25,000 in 2021, then to $28,000 in 2022 and now $33,000 this year.
In the Finance Ministry’s 2023 mid-year report released in September, it was revealed that the Ministry of Human Services and Social Security has so far expended $13.5 billion on old age pensions for the first half of this year.
Meanwhile, it was also announced on Thursday that a one-off bonus will also be paid to persons with disabilities (PWDs).
“Differently-abled persons or persons living with a disability on the Public Register will also receive a $35,000 one-off bonus payment in December of this year. This one-off bonus payment of $35,000 to persons on our Public Assistance Register will benefit 19,000 persons at a cost of $660 million,” the Head of State noted.
These one-off bonus payments will benefit almost 160,000 persons and increase their disposable incomes by over $4.1 billion.
Back in 2021, the Government distributed a $25,000 one-off cash grant to persons with disabilities. Then in August 2022, the Head of State announced a $100,000 one-off cash grant to about 5000 children with disabilities.

Farmers and CIIP workers
President Ali also announced interventions for farmers as well as community enhancement workers on Thursday.
“The Government will also allocate $850 million for the purchase of fertiliser for distribution to farmers. It is expected that this support will benefit 287,000 acres of cultivation and 35,000 farmers. And this will ensure increased food production and containment of cost,” he related.
Last year, the Government had expended $1 billion to purchase fertiliser for free distribution to farmers across Guyana as a means of absorbing the rising global costs for the commodity and preventing the costs from being passed on to consumers at the market.
Furthermore, under the Community Infrastructure Improvement Project (CIIP), community enhancement workers’ monthly earnings would be adjusted upwards to $40,000. According to the Guyanese Leader, this increase takes effect from January 1, 2023, and will benefit of over 2000 workers, thus placing an additional $130 million in disposable income in their hands annually.
In 2022, some $5 billion was set aside to facilitate further advancements in the CIIP programme, which is aimed at improving community aesthetics, and sanitary and environmental conditions across the country.
President Ali said during Thursday’s broadcast that this $5.1 billion in measures represents “…a further instalment of my government’s unwavering commitment to continue to improve the working conditions of our employees in the public sector, support to the vulnerable segment of our population and assistance to our farmers.” (G8)