Despite Fiji’s status as a middle-income country, a high proportion of children live in poor and income-insecure families. This report reviews the Department of Social Welfare’s Care & Protection Allowance, highlighting that its current impact is limited by low coverage and the exclusion of beneficiaries from receiving other social security. The report recommends extending the Allowance’s implementation to establish a child grant and further developing the national social protection system.
UNICEF commissioned this report on behalf of the Department of Social Welfare (DSW) in 2014 to review the Care & Protection Allowance (C&P Allowance), examine its implementation and assess the scheme’s impact on beneficiaries. References and comparisons are made to the strong international evidence-base on the success of cash transfer programmes, and to social protection programmes and policy in other middle-income countries.
Key Findings
- The C&P Allowance is a small programme for children and reaches only around 5000 children (2% of child population) who fall into three familial categories (single-parent; prisoner-dependent, foster) living in difficult circumstances and, in many cases, abject poverty.
- DSW is responsible for both social security schemes and personal social services. The heavy workload generated by the former means Welfare Officers have little time to dedicate to their social work.
- Current level of investment in the C&P Allowance is low comparative to other countries (0.08% of Fiji’s GDP).
- The budget consistently underspent. As a result families are not receiving the full amount, (which is in line with international experience), and therefore is insufficient to be able to move families out of poverty.
- Spending its entire budget would allow the C&P Allowance to reach around 18000 children (6%)
- There is little robust evidence on the effectiveness of the selection process for the C&P allowance. There is a need to recognise the challenge of accurately identifying those living in poverty.
- Conditionalities of the C&P Allowance (children must attend school, available only for 5 years) are not strictly enforced and should be changed in order to have meaningful impact.
Recommendations
Strengthening the implementation of the C&P Allowance and ensuring that its current budget is fully used could improve the lives of a small number of Fiji’s most vulnerable children. However, investment in a broader Child Grant that reaches the majority of children – combined with investments in other lifecycle social security schemes such as the Social Pension and a Disability Benefit – could help transform the nation.
To strengthen the current system, DSW’s options are:
- Build on current system of means testing and provide training to Welfare Officers in its implementation
- Adopt a form of affluence testing which would exclude wealthier families rather than identifying families with the lowest income
However, the key recommendation is to establish a comprehensive child grant for Fiji by extending the C&P Allowance in line with schemes of other middle-income countries such as South Africa, Mauritius and Argentina. This extension would:
- reach around 60% of all households living in poverty
- see a 14% reduction on poverty rates amongst children in beneficiary households
- reduce national poverty rate by 4.7%
The extension should initially focus on the most vulnerable – single-parent families, and children and caregivers with disabilities.
