The Government has already begun payments to Clico policyholders under $75,000 despite some policyholders being adamant about seeking redress in court.Finance Minister Winston Dookeran had proposed an initial $75,000 payment with 20 annual zero-interest coupons to alleviate policyholders' woes in budget 2011.He estimated the problem would cost the Government $500 million annually.The general consensus of the Ansa McAl poll, conducted by the Psychological Research Centre at the University of the West Indies, reveals that 35 per cent of the people interviewed were "unsatisfied" with the Government's handling of the Clico matter.
Specifically:
Totally Satisfied – 5 per cent
Satisfied – 30 per cent
Not satisfied – 35 per cent
Totally unsatisfied – 10 per cent
Don't know – 20 per cent
The five per cent that was totally satisfied stated that the collapse of Clico was not the Government's fault and they should take whatever the Government gave them.Assessing the poll by ethnicity, Indo-Trinidadians were most likely to be "satisfied" with Government's handling of the Clico matter. Specifically, 42 per cent Indo-Trinidadians, 35 per cent Mixed and 29 per cent Afro-Trinidadians were satisfied, stating that:
People should be grateful that the Government is still trying to help them,
People should be looking at Clico to get back their money and not the Government.
Government should not use taxpayers' money to bail out Clico.
Of the majority "not satisfied" more than half were Afro-Trinidadians – 52 per cent, followed by mixed – 42 per cent and Indo-Trinidadian – 39 per cent.Those "not satisfied" cited these reasons: People have worked hard for their money and the Government should try to do something to help them out, and that the Government had a responsibility to put checks and balances on Clico so it's the responsibility of the Government to ensure fairness even though it's an inherited problem.
Those "totally not satisfied" stated, as their reason, that the Government should have intervened a long time ago to avoid this situation.Exploring responses by sex, males (38 per cent) were marginally more likely than females (33 per cent) to indicate they were satisfied with the Government's handling of the Clico matter.Females, the poll ascertained, were more likely then males to remain ambiguous in their rating of the Government's handling of the issue with 27 per cent of females and 12 per cent of males stating they "don't know" as their response.