TCI: 1,016 uncollected ‘Stimmy’ cheques get 90-day lifeline

#TurksandCaicos, July 6, 2021 – Nine hundred people have not collected their stimulus cheques and the TCI government is extending the time for these to pick up their money from the Treasury’s office, the funds come from the Citizens’ Relief program and extends collection to September 1st. 

“Mr. Speaker, we have kept faith with the people and one by one we are delivering on what we promised including those in the first 200 days. In an effort to address the economic fallout resulting from the pandemic, my administration provided fifteen million dollars in stimulus grants. Everyone who is over 18 years old, has Turks and Caicos Islands Status or a British Overseas Territory Citizenship, is living on these islands and took the time to register received a cheque for one thousand US dollars,” said the Hon Washington Misick, Premier and Finance Minister when he presented the 2021-2022 National Budget.

Cheque collection was due to expire on June 30 however, those who had applied and were not able to get their $1k cheque in person have three more months.  Over $15 million dollars was allotted to the program as one of the first key acts of the new PNP Government Administration.

“To ensure that no one is left behind, my Government updated the policy including: – the extension of the cheque collection deadline now extended until September 1, 2021. -4 – home delivery of cheques to incapacitated applicants. Changing the identification criteria for persons over 70 years of age; and – for those who qualified but are now deceased, the cheque can be paid to their estate. As of June 2021, fifteen-thousand-two-hundred-and-eleven applications were submitted. Of this number, thirteenthousand-seven-hundred-and-ninety-six (13,796) were approved; 632 were flagged as duplications; 783 were declined.”

Even those who have died since the stimulus cheques were approved and issued will be able to get the $1,000 according to Premier and Finance Minister Washington Misick.  And over 8.5 million dollars of that money went to paying bills; a significant financial injection.

“TCIG Statistical Unit did a preliminary analysis of the Citizen Relief Stimulus grant programme and found that: 52 per cent of the applicants are women;  42 per cent are between the ages of 21 and 40 – 32.5% of the grant money was used for the payment of Household upkeep and 30.2 per cent for the payment of Utilities.”

 In all, 13.6 Million dollars in cheques were printed up to June 22^nd, with 12,800 people already having collected.