High Court Judge, Justice Damone Younge, has ordered that the National Insurance Scheme (NIS) revisit the claims of a 66-year-old widow, after the Scheme had disallowed her the payment of survivor’s benefits.

ISMAY Lake’s husband, Vibert Lake, died on July 14th, 1990, leaving behind a child who was 11 years old at the time of his death.

Vibert Lake had made in excess of 1,000 contributions prior to his death, but being ignorant of the NIS process, Ismay did not make a claim for survivor’s benefit until November 2016, twenty six years after Vibert’s death.

Her claim for survivor’s pension was denied by the NIS. She was informed that the time for claiming the benefit had passed.

Ismay Lake appealed the decision, contending that her claim should not have been disallowed in its entirety but disqualified for the period from the date of her husband’s death to six months before the claim was made.

Lake took her fight to the High Court before Justice Younge against NIS General Manager and the Board. The elderly woman was represented by attorney-at-law Darren Wade.
Justice Younge stated that the applicant was entitled to survivor’s benefit consequent on the contributions of her husband, who was deceased.

Also, the applicant was not disqualified as a dependent of her deceased husband since, at the time of his death, she was a widow.

The Judge also ordered the remitting of the applicant’s matter to the General Manager for reconsideration of her claim and a determination of whether the reason given by the widow of the delay in the filing of her claim, together with the specific circumstances of her case amounted to good cause being showed for the delay.

Finally, cost to the applicant in the sum of $75,000 to be paid within 21 days.