Speaking in the House of Assemby yesterday, Minister of State in the Ministry of Finance Clyde Mascoll said the new Catastrophe Fund Bill 2007 was triggered by the need for over 25 000 Barbadian households to have some form of insurance in the event of unfortunate circumstances.

Noting that only 25 per cent of the 33 000 chattel houses were covered by insurance, Mascoll said: "The Catastrophe Fund is to provide financial aid to any lower income earners who own and occupy a chattel house valued at not more than $125 000, where that house is damaged or destroyed by a catastrophe within the meaning of the bill.

Have access

"Government is seeing it fit to ensure that persons in the lower socio-economic rungs in this society will still have access to basic needs," he added.

The St Michael North West MP said Government would contribute $2.5 million per year to the fund over the five years with the National Insurance Scheme (NIS) managing it after this.

He also said that the fund would be supplemented from Barbadians through their NIS contributions.

"The Government has decided a 1 000th of your income will be a contribution . . . . The current National Insurance Scheme has a maximum earnings level of about $3 200 per month and a 1 000th of that happens to be $3.20 per month.

"So you are asking a Barbadian to make a contribution, Mr Speaker, to a fund of about ten cents per day," he said.

He also announced a five-member committee which will manage the dispensation of the fund. That body will include the NIS director, Chief Fire Officer, Accountant-General and two other people appointed by the Minister of Finance.