100-Year Old Virgin Islanders to Receive Lump-Sum Award Under Proposed Legislation
A bill to award centenarians with a single, lump sum payment of $5,000 instead of two separate payments cleared the Senate’s Committee on Budget, Appropriations and Finance with relative ease during a session held on April 4th.
2023-04-05 14:41:34 - VI News Journalist
Virgin Islanders, who reach the milestone of 100 years of age and claim residency for at least 30 years, qualify for the Centennial Living Treasures Award, which is administered through the Department of Human Services (DHS). Among the provisions, qualifying recipients receive an initial award $4000 to the recipient and another $1000 upon the recipient’s death for burial expenses.
Providing a lump-sum loan to recipients maintains efficiency in the disbursement method according to the sponsor of the bill, Senator Dwayne M. DeGraff. Sen. DeGraff said the bill was developed in consultation with the DHS Commissioner and would alleviate the burden of keeping up with secondary contacts over time.
“To me it’s very straightforward,” said Sen. DeGraff during his introduction of the bill. “Pay them $5,000 one time and then we eliminate all those other issues and then we try to get it done.”
Bill No. 35-0054 received additional support from the DHS’s Commissioner, Kimberley Causey-Gomez in the form of written testimony. In her testimony, she explained that it would clear bureaucratic hurdles when dispersing the awards.
“In certain instances, it is a matter of timing,” said Commissioner Causey-Gomez, in her submitted testimony. “There have been times when DHS does not get notified in a timely manner to the passing of a recipient and is unable to present the additional $1,000.00 or the recipient passed while off-island.”
Committee members ultimately voted unanimously in support of the measure, but expressed disappointment in its inability to question representatives from the DHS directly regarding the overall efficacy of the Centennial Living Treasures Award program, which has a scope beyond the monetary reward.
According to the Act No. 7956, which was first established the Award program in 2016, the DHS must also: develop and maintain a genealogy database of all centennials, past and present, who are candidates or recipients of the award; identify all persons residing in the Virgin Islands who have attained their 100th birthday; quarterly submit the names, biographical information, and accomplishments of the award recipients to the Legislature of the Virgin Islands for passage of a resolution honoring the named recipient. In addition, the law stipulates that the resident “may reside at a private home or at a government facility,” which provides significant demographic constraints for potential recipients.
Committee members expressed a need for further feedback regarding the development and effectiveness of these stipulations, but lodged them for further conversation with the Department of Human Services to advance the legislation to the Senate’s Rules and Judiciary Committee for further consideration as it deliberates on these outstanding issues.