The Ministry of Women, Children, and Poverty Alleviation staff are overworked and burned out.

Assistant Minister Sashi Kiran says this because there are no clear pathways in most of the poverty alleviation programs.

Kiran says no government or ministry will be so cruel as to terminate the allowance of welfare recipients without a reason or proper justification.

According to the Assistant Minister, they are analyzing and understanding the challenges before tackling issues surrounding the most vulnerable.

“The Australian Government, through its flagship social protection program – Partnerships for Social Protection Program (P4SP) is currently conducting a review of the social assistance programs that will provide key recommendations around strengthening the processes and systems that underpin the assistance schemes.”

Kiran adds the Welfare Graduation Programme has also been halted by the previous government and doesn’t exist since 2019.

The Ministry is also working with the World Bank to design a draft Adaptive Social Protection Strategy and Implementation Plan for Fiji.