The government has decided to provide an allowance of Rs. 5,000 during the Sinhala and Tamil New Year to the low-income and Samurdhi families affected by the Covid-19 epidemic.
The provision of the Rs. 5,000 allowance to the affected families began yesterday, April 12, following a circular issued by the Prime Minister’s Office.
According to the circular issued by the Secretary to the Prime Minister, the selection of beneficiary families will be done under 07 categories.
Those eligible for the allowance include:
1. Samurdhi beneficiary families
2. Low-income earning families
3. Families comprising of recipients of the Elders Allowance
4. Families comprising kidney patients who receive allowances
5. Families comprising centenarians who receive the Elders Allowance AND
6. Families that have filed appeals and are eligible under any of the aforementioned categories.
The relevant circular states that the allowance will be paid to one beneficiary family only under one category.
Although registered under one household number in the electoral roll, in addition to the main family unit of that household based unit, payments will also be made for families living as sub families.
Accordingly, the government has taken steps to provide the allowance to 4 million families including 1,700,000 Samurdhi recipient families, 780,000 families on the Samurdhi waiting list, 726,000 families filed appeals, 626,000 families receiving Elders allowance, 123,000 families receiving disability allowance and 44,000 families comprising kidney patients and to families who have lost their livelihood based on the recommendations of the Rural Committees and the Divisional Secretaries.
