The People of Barbados will be severely affected by the proposed changes to the National Insurance Scheme. They have noted that last March 2022, the Prime Minister stated that it was her intent to:
1. Make the National Insurance Scheme (NIS) a Statutory Corporation more independent from Government by the end of 2022.
2. Recapitalize the NIS.
3. Add a requirement to diversify investments both locally and abroad.
4. Ensure that when private projects SEEK PUBLIC SUPPORT, they give the NIS the choice to invest.
However, the People of Barbados not having been privy to any report on the consultations regarding the National Insurance scheme, not being provided information on the Actuarial Review of the Pension Fund, not having knowledge of the assets of the Scheme or how the tax payers monies are being spent or invested or government’s action to recover funds that are being owed; are now being faced with a Bill that has already passed in the House of Assembly without discussion when this Bill will have profound effects on the lives of the dwindling middle class and all of the persons from the lower echelons of society and Barbadians yet unborn. The Bill is now before the Senate the step before it becomes the law of the land.
The People have decided to take a stand. Our concerns are for:
1. Public engagement in a matter that profoundly alters the National Insurance scheme as it presently exists.
2. The conducting of a Social and Economic Impact Assessment on how such action will affect persons who currently live in Barbados as well as Barbadians who live abroad that have worked on the island and are due a pension.
3. All other options be explored to maintain the safety net of the people before the National Insurance Scheme is tampered with to the detriment of the people.
4. The impact on people who are currently eligible for a pension but with the proposed Bill, will not have enough contributions since the number of contributions will rise from 500 to 750.
5. That government bear the burden of proof to show evidence that their proposal in the form of a Bill has been a successful in another country and can therefore be a model adopted by Barbados.
6. That an island which currently has concerns about the level of productivity would even consider extending the retirement age of its workforce as this will undoubtedly lead to less productivity especially for manual, blue collar, construction and agricultural workers and a rise in physical and age-related illnesses.
7. The fact that many of our statutory corporations were established to relieve them of the administrative burden of the public service. While this makes sense in theory (1) we know that many statutory corporations have not been very good at producing financial statements to account for their operations (2) they are more politicized than the Civil Service since Governments will change the entire board and top management based on partisan political considerations rather than performance or ability. (3) Ministers with responsibility for statutory corporations are known to have refused to bring information about their operation to the Cabinet. There is nothing to suggest this will change.
8. That our pensions will be used to support/prop up private sector projects.
9. While diversifying investment sounds good, who will manage these investments? With no regard for the Auditor General how will we know that the money will not be going to family and friends? The people still are not provided with the transparency to know what happens to borrowed funds after they pass through the Estimates process so how can we trust what will happen to our NIS funds?
The time to act is now and based on the foregoing, we the People are demanding that:
1. The age of retirement to be at 65
2. Eligibility remains at 500 contributions
3. Politicians and citizens to be on par with respect to retirement age
4. More compliance officers be employed to ensure contributions are paid
5. Government pay back the money owed
6.Government identifies the leaks in the scheme and fix them
7. Government goes after defaulters
8. Regular audits are conducted
9. Systems are put in place whereby the government cannot use the funds
10. NIS be placed into the Central Government and not under the absolute control of the Minister
11. Systems are put in place to help microbusinesses file their contributions
12. That The National Insurance (Amendment) Bill & The Pensions (Miscellaneous Provisions) Bill be withdrawn.
The blogmaster invites you to join the discussion.