In the last 19 months, the National Insurance Scheme (NIS) has been awarded more than $50 million following action taken against employers who were delinquent in paying contributions on behalf of their workers.
And NIS director Kim Tudor warned that while the Scheme was willing to work with employers, it would continue going after those who fail to hand over outstanding monies.
She issued the warning during a Zoom discussion hosted by the Barbados Association of Retired Persons (BARP) in collaboration with the NIS, on the provisions of the NIS Revitalisation Plan, on Wednesday night.
Earlier in the discussion, while highlighting some of the measures the Government was undertaking to prevent the Fund’s depletion, the NIS deputy chairman Rawdon Adams noted that there were two areas to correct the challenges – costs and revenue.
As it relates to revenue, he estimated that the Government loses out on between $40 million and $70 million because of delinquency. Tudor explained that the NIS doubled the number of inspections between January and June this year when compared to last year. In addition, the NIS took action against delinquent employers.
“In 2022, we would have filed 272 unpaid contribution certificates. These are persons who haven’t paid and these are 272 against various employers. And the amount of money that we would have received a judgment on was $31 million. For this year so far, up to July, we would have filed 153 certificates with an outstanding rate of $20 million. So, these are all the measures available to us and we’re continually taking these measures,” she disclosed.
Tudor also stressed that the NIS hoped to partner with employers going forward and promised enhanced systems related to the disbursement of monthly statements, and payment plans for employers having financial difficulties.
She also encouraged employees to take advantage of the NIS portal to ensure that their companies were paying in their benefits.
“We do have a portal where employees can go and see that contributions are being paid for them. You know, over the years, we would have heard and we do have situations where persons said, ‘my employer has been taking out but I haven’t seen it being paid’ or it wasn’t paid in when they came for a benefit. So, those things are there and we are going to be working closely with both the employee and the employer to increase adherence,” the NIS director said.
(KC)
