Self-employed business interruption benefit

 

The Prime Minister of Barbados announced the launch of a one-time benefit for the self-employed whose business activity was interrupted due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

The payment of this benefit will be facilitated by the National Insurance Office.

Following are the qualifying criteria for the payment of this benefit:

i. The period for consideration is January 2019 to December 2019.

ii. Self-employed persons must have paid contributions for at least two quarters of 2019 by April 27, 2020.

iii. Self-employed persons who registered with the National Insurance Office after the second quarter of 2019, must have paid contributions for at least one quarter of 2019 by April 27, 2020.

iv. Persons in receipt of any form of pension from the National Insurance Office are not eligible for the benefit.

v. Persons who are 67 years of age or older, are not eligible to receive the benefit.

Self-employed persons who satisfy the criteria are invited to complete the application form, which can be downloaded from the website www.nis.gov.bb.

The completed form should be scanned and returned to selfemployed.queries@bginis.gov.bb by June 12, 2020.
The completed form can also be returned to the National Insurance Office by June 12, 2020.