As he delivered remarks at the National Insurance Scheme’s (NIS) graduation ceremony for Trainee Inspectors, Senior Minister in the Office of the President with Responsibility for Finance and the Public Service Dr. Ashni Singh while acknowledging the 18,000 cases that were in backlog or otherwise stuck in the NIS system that Government and the NIS have managed to clear up from August 2020 to present, indicated that ‘we are not where we need to be’.
“Far too many people attain the age of retirement and then encounter difficulties to get their pension and there are still far too many people who have gone past their retirement age who are still unable to access their benefits from the Scheme,” the Minister emphasized.
He pointed out that often times the responsibility is not that of the Scheme but rather as a result of a number of employers who, despite it being lawfully required for them to pay over their employees’ contributions to the Scheme, do not do so, and therefore, upon the age of retirement, persons then discover that this was not being done or that there were gaps in the payments.
“That is not acceptable!” the Minister said, as he noted that as a result of a targeted and dedicated effort by Government and the National Insurance Scheme (NIS) with a focus on the security sector, Government and NIS, over the last three weeks to a month, were able to get several private security companies to pay contributions for more than 2,100 security guards for which they were previously not paying.
“This Government’s position is that we have zero tolerance for employers failing to pay over NIS contributions to the Scheme, Dr. Singh said as he charged the NIS to immediately ramp up efforts to ensure that employers are paying over NIS deductions to the Scheme for all of their (the employers’) employees.
“This is not a discretionary matter; the law requires you to deduct the employees NIS contributions and for yourself (the Employers contribution) and to pay it over to the NIS in a timely manner… and I am saying to employers out there today that Government will not tolerate the failure to pay over or remit in a timely manner NIS contributions on behalf of employees, not only current employees but if you have any backlog please make sure that you come in promptly to the Scheme and pay off that backlog,“ the Minister urged.
Dr. Singh also used the opportunity of today’s forum to appeal to citizens to check on their records and contributions in good time and not wait until they reach the age of 60. He urged self-employed persons as well to contribute to the Scheme and not wait until they are in their fifties or sixties when they will not be able to benefit or be able to achieve 750 contributions.
The Minister congratulated the graduands and charged them as new inspectors to approach their jobs in a strictly professional manner and to be proactive and diligent.
Thirty persons today graduated during a simple ceremony held at the Arthur Chung Conference Centre which was attended by several officials of the NIS including its General Manager Ms. Holly Greaves and members of the NIS Board. The ceremony provided for the graduation of twenty new Inspectors, four Customer Service Representatives, two Internal Auditors, and four Nurses for Sick Visitors. [Ministry of Finance press release]
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