Havana, Cuba: More than 16 thousand families in Cuba today receive social assistance, as part of government actions to protect vulnerable groups from the implementation of the monetary system, official sources say.
The head of the Permanent Commission for the Implementation and Development of the Guidelines of the Communist Party of Cuba, Marino Murillo, commented on the data on his Twitter account and added that these actions are part of the government’s decision not to leave anyone homeless in the new economic scenario of the Island.
Since January 1, the Caribbean nation undertook a profound reform that includes monetary and exchange unification, leaving the Cuban peso as the only currency in the country, at an exchange rate of 24 pesos to the US dollar.
Likewise, wages and prices were increased, and some subsidies and gratuities were eliminated.
Faced with the devaluation of the currency and inflation, the government authorities reiterate in different news spaces their willingness to protect the most vulnerable groups, among which are elderly people who live alone or low-income families.
As the Minister of Labor and Social Security, Marta Elena Feitó, said recently in the television program Round Table, the state budget allocated 700 million pesos (about 29 million dollars) for this financial support.
In addition, the country has 18 billion pesos (750 million dollars) to support companies (about 400) in a situation of losses due to the implementation of the ordinance, which translates into the protection of more than 300 thousand employees.
The principle, she explained, is to subsidize people who need it and not products, as has been done up to now.
The owner also affirmed that the programs created to benefit population sectors with special situations: grandparents’ homes, family care system, nursing homes, protection of mothers with children with disabilities, among others, will not be paralyzed and all will be maintained. its services. (IVP)