NIS GM wants to retire at 60

GENERAL Manager of the National Insurance Scheme (NIS), Doreen Nelson, has called for an increase in the retirement age of members of the public service which will ensure better pension benefits and more revenue paid to the NIS.

General Manager of NIS, Doreen Nelson
General Manager of NIS, Doreen Nelson

Nelson testified before the Commission of Inquiry into the public service Monday and has asked that public service retirement age be raised to 60, making it in-sync with that of NIS, which is a corporate entity under the auspices of the Ministry of Finance. The NIS boss said those retiring at 55 are at a disadvantage when they have to wait five years after to receive their pension since within those five years there could be an increase in salaries from which they will not benefit.
“Some persons can find themselves from the public service to be somewhat disadvantaged if they come off at 55 and are paid pension at age 60, because within those five years there can be salary increases that will not be given to them and some of them who return to work after 55 and they go back at salaries lower than the insurable earnings scale then they would be affected when we calculate the pension at age 60.”
The formula used by NIS to calculate benefits uses the individual’s average salary in the last five years of work – selecting the three highest rates of the five years. If someone was being paid $100,000 and retired, and returned to work for a lower salary of $60,000 their NIS will be calculated using the $60,000 salary. Nelson also revealed that the three-year time span for claiming pensions has been removed by legislation and pensioners who claim years after are receiving all of their monies owed.
Meanwhile, Nelson presented to the CoI that NIS has some gray areas which need to be addressed. The body she said is a corporate one which is headed by a Board of Directors, but in many things has been governed by the public service rules. “The grey areas for us are that in certain things we are okay and approved for the same things as the public service, (but) in certain other things we are not. We just wanted within all that is being done that persons also look to see that in light of us being body corporate whether or not we should be following that.”

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