Atherley criticises proposed pension age hike

Former Opposition Leader Bishop Joseph Atherley has chided the government for its plan to raise the pensionable age, saying it will “wreak havoc” on the lives of Barbadians.

While admitting measures are necessary to save the almost depleted National Insurance Scheme (NIS) pension fund, Atherley said that based on current economic circumstances, increasing the pensionable age to 68 and the number of contributions needed will have negative socio-economic impacts.

“We are saying at one time that we are living in a society where we are faced with the prevalence of debilitating illnesses, but at the same time, we are calling on people to work for longer years to get a pension, and we’re calling on people to accept some adjustments to the qualified age for pensions going forward…Based on current economic circumstances, these measures will wreak some havoc on the people and there is likely to be increased pain in terms of the socio-economic experience and realities in which we now live,” he said.

Speaking to Barbados TODAY, Atherley called it a paradox that less than four years after writing off hundreds of millions owed to the NIS as part of its debt restructuring programme, Government was now seeking to address the fund’s depletion by making Barbadians contribute longer.

“At a time when the fund is under stress, you have written off those monies in your debt restructure, and then you call on people to accept the fact that the fund is in jeopardy, and ‘we have to inflict further pain to address that possible jeopardy’,” he said.

The former MP said the time has come for improved governance to prevent political interference in the NIS and Central Bank, which was also affected by the 2019 debt restructuring as over $1 billion in government debt was written off.

Atherley also noted it is necessary to examine NIS investments, insisting they must be based on professional advice, or the fund will remain in its current situation.

He stressed recapitalizing the NIS and Central Bank must be addressed, or issues will persist. “If we do not change structurally, the overarching mechanisms that conduce to these problems, we will continue to have them. So today the age we are going to is 68. The next decision might come some little while down the road that is going to 70 and Bajans have to respond to that. If we do not change the governance and administrators’ management structure of the handling of these funds. And if we do not change the investment posture, we are going to have those problems reoccurring,” he added.

(JB)