THE HAGUE - Fifteen to twenty percent of the population in Curaçao is dependent on food support. The Dutch government has released 41.2 million euros for the short term in 2020 to provide food aid for Aruba, Curaçao and Sint Maarten.
Under the coordination of the Red Cross, approximately 22,000 people on Curaçao are provided with food aid.
This is what Undersecretary Raymond Knops said in answers to questions from the Parliamentary Standing Committee on Kingdom Affairs.
Research is currently being conducted into how high the needs are expected to be in 2021 and how the Dutch government can contribute to them.
This also applies to people who are not entitled to the social security system because they work in the informal economy. This element is part of the Curaçao country package, which is part of the package of long-term support measures.
Country package Curaçao
The measures from that national package are used to work towards a stronger economy, with the aim, among other things, of boosting employment and enabling the population to provide for their own livelihood.
In addition, the functioning of the labor market, the social security system and the social safety net are examined. The precise elaboration of this in incidental and structural initiatives requires further research, Knops writes.
Discussions are currently taking place with Curaçao about prioritizing the measures and phasing in time in order to arrive at a thorough, realistic, elaboration.
Poverty
It is not yet clear to Curaçao and the Netherlands which population groups live in great poverty in Curaçao. The Netherlands says it wants to investigate this first.
The national package contains measures to make it more attractive for business owners to employ people. At the same time, a solid but activating social safety net for those who have lost their jobs must be worked on. In addition, the review of the tax system, and in particular the income tax, looks at ways in which the strongest shoulders also bear the heaviest burdens and in which the income distribution can be more evenly distributed.