 In the pursuit of putting people first, we need to ensure that there are adequate social safety nets that will enable the poorest and differently able citizens to enjoy a decent life in solution. This is why we intend to increase and reform our assistance programme. Notwithstanding our rank in the Human Development Index, poverty remains high and have been worsened by the ongoing negative COVID-19 pandemic and the effects of global events. It is again this background that the public assistance programme, PAP, had to be improved and expanded by the addition of 1005 households using the solution national eligibility test. My government has insisted and instructed that beneficiaries of public assistance should be paid at the same time as public servants as a demonstration of respect for the welfare and dignity of the less fortunate. Mr Speaker, we do not believe that our less fortunate citizens should remain in persistent poverty if it can be avoided. In this regard, a consultancy for the development of a graduation strategy for social assistance programmes to guide the transition process from social assistance to independent living will be completed this year. Mr Speaker, not only has the government increased its budgetary allocation to the Ministry of Social Transformation but has reinstated the distressed fund with an allocation of one million dollars. Mr Speaker, the government appreciates the contribution of non-government organisations to the social well-being of the less fortunate and has responded accordingly by increasing the subvention to some of these organisations.