Because We Care grant to be paid from June 29th – Parag

Minister of Education Sonia Parag during a consultation in Region 5 announced that the Because We Care (BWC) cash grant which now stands at $85,000 will be disbursed to every parent of a school child registered in school, whether private or public, later this month.

“Beginning on the 29th of June every parent who has a child registered in the school system, private or public, will be receiving the Because We Care cash grant across the country…,” the Minister said to applause in the background in a video clip of the announcement shared by her ministry.

She explained the traditional BWC grant was increased from $50,00 to $60,000 and with the $5000 uniform allowance and the one-off $20,000 yearly transportation grant given to each child annually, the figure is now $85,000.

The minister made the announcement during the final consultation on the development of Guyana’s Anti-Bullying and Anti-Violence Policy for Schools.

The announcement of the increase and new grant was made during the Government’s January presentation of its $1.558 trillion national budget by Dr Ashni Singh, Minister in the Office of the President with responsibility for Finance.

The budget was presented under the theme “Putting People First” on January 27th during the 2nd Sitting of the Thirteenth Parliament.

During his presentation the minister said that since 2020 the government has incrementally increased the BWC grant initially from $10,000 in 2014 to $50,000 in 2025.

“I now wish to announce a further increase of the BWC Grant to $60,000 to the benefit 206,000 children in public and private schools, placing an additional $2 billion into households with school children. This will result in an estimated $12.4 billion being transferred to parents under the BWC programme,” the Minister had said at the time.

“Mr. Speaker, I am also pleased to announce that, in keeping with our 2025 manifesto promise, Government will be introducing an annual Transportation Support Grant amounting to $20,000 per child and totalling $4.1 billion of additional disposable income to parents,” he added.