Government Expands Eligibility For Social Assistance Grants
The Government has announced major reforms to the Standard Means Test (SMT) to ensure a greater number of families are eligible for social assistance grants.
The move was revealed by Minister of the People, Social Development and Family Services, Vandana Mohit, in Friday’s sitting of the House of Representatives.
Delivering a statement, she said the changes are long overdue and will better reflect the realities facing vulnerable citizens in 2026 and beyond.
« For almost a decade vulnerable families were being assessed using benchmarks established before dramatic increases in food prices, transportation costs, housing expenses, utilities, and healthcare burdens and, most importantly, the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic. And that is the uncomfortable truth. Madam Deputy Speaker, a system designed to protect the vulnerable cannot remain frozen in time while the cost of survival continues to rise. »
Minister Mohit said an Inter-Ministerial Committee was established in July 2025 to comprehensively review the Standard Means Test.
Economists, academics, statisticians, social policy specialists, health experts, planning professionals, and representatives from several ministries gave their input during the four-month-long process.
She said the eventual result led to updates to the poverty indicators.
« The poverty line has moved from TT$1,439.02 to $2,044.23 per adult equivalent per month, an increase of 42.1%. The indigence line has increased from $553.47 to $783.23. The vulnerability line has increased from $1,798.78 to $2,555.29. »
The minister said these changes are necessary to ease the burden facing the vulnerable in society.
« These figures acknowledge the painful reality that life has become more expensive for ordinary citizens and most importantly, these revised thresholds mean that more genuinely vulnerable households will now qualify for assistance instead of being unfairly excluded under outdated criteria. »
Minister Mohit said the reform allows assessments to better reflect actual living conditions.
She noted the changes may result in more than $900 in additional disposable income when determining eligibility and could allow a vulnerable family that would have been previously excluded to now qualify for the public assistance grant.
