–          Dr Singh says
–          $10 billion allocation approved

STAYING on track with an announcement by President Dr Irfaan Ali late last year that sums of money will be allocated to address lump sum payments for persons who had not met the required contributions to the National Insurance Scheme (NIS), a proposal is being developed to roll this programme out soon.

This is according to Senior Minister within the Office of the President with responsibility for Finance and the Public Service, Dr Ashni Singh, who made this disclosure on Wednesday during the final day of the consideration of the estimates and expenditures for 2025.

Questioned on the purpose of a $10 billion allocation for the NIS, Dr Singh reminded members of the parliamentary committee of supply of an announcement made by President Dr. Irfaan Ali in October 2024 during which he said that the government will make available an amount of $10 billion to address the issue.

“Specifically, to address the fact that there are persons who have marginally missed for one reason or another, the minimum eligibility requirements for pension,” he said.

Giving a further explanation, he noted that the sum would cater for some persons who have not met the required 750 minimum contributions to the scheme and are unable to get a pension from the NIS.

“So, this $10 billion injection is specifically to address those persons who have missed [or] who don’t have 750 [contributions] within a clearly defined margin; to address those persons and to give them a one-off payment in recognition of the fact that they have missed their eligibility for pension by just a marginal number of contributions,” he explained to the committee.

Against this backdrop, he noted that the NIS is currently analysing their data and they are working on developing a proposal which will be announced in due course.

After President Ali’s announcement in October, Vice President Dr Bharrat Jagdeo had said that this sum would help those persons, as some of them were not to be blamed for not meeting the requirements.

“Many times, their employers never deducted or deducted and never transmitted their deductions to the NIS on their behalf, and they were not aware until they retired and then sought to collect their pension, and they’re told you don’t have the contributions,” he said.

Hopefully, he noted that the lump-sum payment would offset the contributions that they have made over the many years to the country and to the NIS itself.