Govt. to inject $10B to assist citizens who fall short with NIS contributions
Kaieteur News – The Government of Guyana intends to inject some $10B into the National Insurance Scheme (NIS) to assist person who have fallen short with their contributions over the years. The initiative which was announced on Thursday at parliament by President Irfaan Ali was taken on the basis that there are citizens who are having difficulties accessing the benefits they are entitled to.
President Irfaan Ali
The president told the Parliament that during their cross-country interactions “especially (with) the elderly, we thought it necessary that we must and should do more. This would allow contributors who would not have met the requirement to benefit from a cash injection that will support a better quality of living for them and allow them the opportunity of benefitting from their contribution.”
In a subsequent press conference on Thursday at Freedom House Vice President Bharrat Jagdeo sought to provide further information and insight to the announcement.
Vice President, Bharrat Jagdeo.
He disclosed that a conversation with a former minister of the previous administration he was informed that the man was still not able to access his pension due to the lax record keeping at the institution. The VP highlighted that this individual is among a large number of citizens who seen to be facing this issue.
“So there’s a large number of Guyanese we have helped; we have worked with them, every outreach we have, we have tons of people who come and speak to us. People sometimes die and they can’t get their pension because (of) their contributions,” he said.
Jagdeo further explained that, “They have to have 750 contributions to qualify for a pension and they claim they have worked they made the payment nut NIS doesn’t have it in the records or sometimes the NIS contributions were deducted by the employer but never transferred to the NIS, and so what has happened is that those people are not eligible for a pension and NIS pension.”
Boasting that his government has raised the minimum wage pension for NIS, he said his government thought it unfair that there are persons who would have made contributions but still fell short of the 750 would not be able to benefit.
“So what the president announced here is that we have set aside $10B to work on a formula to address people who fall below the threshold, to make them eligible to receive an NIS pension, but they would have made contributions over the years, large number of contributions and so this raise goes back a far way, public servants, sugar workers everyone,” he said.
Furthermore “Over the course of the next few months, we will work out the exact formula how we will get some help to them. They would each receive a sum of money from the state for the contributions that they have made to NIS which doesn’t make them eligible because they fall short 0f the 750 contributions.”
