What thousands of unemployed people out there want to know is when is the second tranche of the COVID unemployment relief coming through.

It's $150.00 which may not be a whole lot - but for those who have lost their jobs and have no income, it is plenty. And while the relief program was announced weeks ago, for most, the money can't reach yet.

The Prime Minister apologised today:

Rt. Hon. Dean Barrow - Prime Minister
"There has been a little bit of a lag and I apologized to people for that. I want to express my sincere regret, people are absolutely desperate and it is our duty to get relief to them as quickly as possible. But it's starting to happen now and it will happen in a way that will absolutely out do what was taking place under phase 1."

A part of the hold up is that the Minister of Labour is now handling the disbursements, it is no longer going through social security. The Minister of Labour told us that "People are already being paid. Slowly so far. BUt it has started and it will go faster next week.

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Unemployment Relief Getting Out

And, finally tonight, we have an update on the second phase of the unemployment relief program which opened one month ago.

The total number of applications received as of this morning, is 61,395.

As we told you applications are no longer being processed by social security, but by a unit within the Labour Department.

And this changeover has been a holdup in people receiving those much anticipated $150.00 dollar payments.

Well, now you can check how your payment process is going.

The Government of Belize's Covid19.bz website has been updated with the ability to check on the status of an application.

As of this morning, 7,418 applications have been approved. Of these, 6,621 payments have been processed by the National Bank. The Central Bank closed the automatic payment system on September 2nd as a part of the emergency preparation for Tropical Storm Nana. As soon as the system is re-opened payments will resume.

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