The Government is considering issuing a one-time payment for elderly persons who have not qualified for pension from the National Insurance Scheme (NIS), according to Vice President Dr Bharrat Jagdeo.
During his press conference on Thursday, he recalled that several elderly people have complained of being robbed of their NIS pension after employers either failed to make deductions or failed to remit those deductions.
NIS pension refers to money paid on a monthly basis to individuals aged 60 and over, who have contributed to the NIS during their years of employment. To qualify for this, the NIS-insured person must have paid not less than 750 contributions.
Jagdeo said some of the people who are ineligible are not at fault. “Many times their employer never deducted, or deducted and never transmitted their deduction to the NIS on their behalf and they were not aware of this until they retired and they then sought to collect their pension and were told they don’t have the contributions. It is a sad situation when you go across the country and people tell you the story about the contributions they made and how their employer rip them off.”
To address this, the Government recently earmarked $10 billion for the NIS.
Of that amount, Jagdeo said efforts are ongoing to look at ways to support these people in the form of a one-time payment. “They will each get a lump sum payment so that hopefully it will offset the contributions they made to the country and to the NIS itself,” he explained.
The remainder of the $10B will be injected into the Scheme to “preserve” it, the Vice President added.
Meanwhile, some persons already collecting NIS pension have asked for an increase but the Vice President explained that the Scheme is running in a deficit and must first be in a better place before that increase can be granted.
On the other hand, the government also pays old-age pension which is available to every citizen after the age of 65. This is valued at $36,000 and will be increased to $41,000 in 2025.
