Cabinet has called for more aggressive interventions that include set targets for clearing the backlog of cases to be addressed by the National Insurance Scheme (NIS). Head of the Presidential Secretariat Dr. Roger Luncheon made this statement Thursday during his weekly post-Cabinet media briefing at the Office of the President.

According to Dr. Luncheon, Cabinet reviewed the developments affecting the quality of services provided to pensioners and contributors of the NIS; and in its review, identified recurrent criticisms and expressions of concern by stakeholders, particularly in relation to delays in accessing benefits.
Hence, clearing the existing significant backlog of outstanding payments was identified as the main factor for the delay in updating the scheme’s database of contributions.   
During a Cabinet outreach to Region 6 last year, residents raised concerns about their NIS contributions not being found when they attained the age of 65.
Minister of Finance Dr. Ashni Singh, who was part of the outreach team, assured that the NIS is in the process of updating its database to ensure that such records are completed.
He explained that a Bill was passed in Parliament to make provisions for the NIS to submit a statement of contributions to employers which will help in alleviating the problem of missing contributions.
East Berbice residents had also complained to President Bharrat Jagdeo, on one of his visits to that community, about delays in NIS payments for retired workers.
This, the President had said, was “unacceptable and unfair” since NIS should not deny payments to people who have been paying their contributions because of its poor record keeping.(GINA)