Leader of Government Business Kurt Tibbetts defended his Government’s record of providing financial assistance to indigents who cannot afford to bury deceased relatives during a recent Finance Committee debate.
Mr. Tibbetts was responding to comments by opposition MLA Rolston Anglin in the legislative assembly on 28 May.
While acknowledging that Government had increased the amount it provides for burial assistance, Mr. Anglin said more money should be made available.
Mr. Tibbetts said his Government had increased funding for the Department of Children and Family Services’ burial assistance programme from $45,000 to $100,000 in the past two years.
He said the means tests employed by the DCFS to determine eligibility for burial assistance struck a compassionate balance between ensuring people take responsibility for burying deceased family members and helping those genuinely in need of financial assistance.
Mr. Tibbetts said he thought the $100,000 dedicated to the burial assistance programme for the coming financial year was an appropriate amount. If further need arose, Government would make a supplementary appropriation, he said.
Mr. Anglin asked DCFS Director Deanna Look Loy whether families were assessed to determine if they could make a contribution to burial costs.
Mrs. Look Loy said Caymanians are proud people that want to know they have contributed to the cost of burying deceased family members. Because of this, the DCFS usually tries to split burial costs if the family cannot afford to pay the full cost, Mrs. Look Loy said.
Mr. Tibbett’s comments came after another Cabinet Member, Arden McLean, said in April that Cayman needed to consider enacting laws to legalise alternative methods of disposing of human remains.
With the number of cemetery plots dwindling on Grand Cayman, Mr. Mclean suggested that cremation, ocean burials and vault stacking all needed to be looked at.
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