THREE thousand people will no longer receive assistance from the Social Welfare Ministry.
The World Bank has however estimated that at least 7000 or 28 per cent of the 25,000 receiving assistance are not in the poorest of the poor category.
Social Welfare Women and Poverty Alleviation permanent secretary Govind Sami said at least 1271 of the disqualified recipients were appealing the ministry's decision.
Mr Sami said in a statement that following a World Bank recommendation, the ministry reviewed its social welfare files and found that 3409 welfare recipients could not receive any more welfare assistance.
"We have found out the family economic circumstances have changed over a period of time where support has been established and as a result they no longer qualify for welfare assistance.
"For example if there is a woman receiving care and protection (C&P) allowance in respect of her children attending school, once her children reach 18 years of age they no longer qualify for social welfare assistance. Other factors are that children may be employed, single mothers are employed or the client's health condition has improved," Mr Sami said.
He said clients would be notified in writing of their termination.
"The decision is given to the clients in writing which outlines termination effective date, reasons for disqualification. These clients have been well informed that if they are not satisfied, they can write to the Appeals Panel for reconsideration or clarification on their cases.
"A total of 1271 cases have been received by Appeals Panel and if they can justify their reasons as to why they should continue receiving welfare assistance then the decision might be overturned by social welfare managers.
"We have linked with the turaga ni koro, advisory councillors and village elders to help us identify the most deserving cases. It is also our intention that clients who are able bodied to be channelled into income activities and take in more of the poorest of the poor" category," Mr Sami said.
He said the review revealed that while existing social protection resources were small, they were well utilised.