Hinkson wants harsher penalties for employers who don’t pay in NIS deductions

Businesses that fail to turn in contributions to the National Insurance Scheme (NIS) despite deducting the money from their employees’ pay must face harsher penalties, St James North MP Edmund Hinkson insisted on Tuesday.

Contributing to debate in the House of Assembly on the National

Insurance and Social Security (Amendment) (No. 2) Bill, 2023, he said that while the legislation sought to provide more avenues for self-employed individuals to pay in their monies and get safeguards from the NIS Fund, lawmakers should not be distracted from the fact that many employers are still not paying in deductions.

“I do call on the private sector not to take money out of your employees’ salary and not pay it in…. I know that money could be tight sometimes, but you can’t be taking out the employees’ portion of NIS and not paying it into the NIS because you keeping it to sustain your business.

“In a lot of cases, the employee does not know that the money [is] not being paid in. When they retire, they go now to NIS to try to get something [and] then hear [there is] no money there for them. Really and truly, I am calling here today on NIS and authorities to prosecute more people on this issue,” he insisted.

Though he acknowledged that businesses can go through difficult financial times and that adjustments must be made, Hinkson said giving businesses numerous opportunities to correct unfair practices must stop.

“I know that this is a country where people feel that they can make a phone call and then get ease off. We gotta stop that because it does not benefit the country as a whole, it does not add to our national development. In fact, I am going to argue that it is a corrupt practice too. So don’t be afraid of anybody. Enforce the unpaid debt certificates that you have against [those in] the private sector who are guilty of these fraudulent kinds of practices against poor employees who get taken for a ride,” the MP said.

Meanwhile, Hinkson defended the track record of the NIS. He was adamant that despite the criticism, the NIS has served as a reliable scheme for Barbadians to use in times of need.

“You have to put back in to get out, and I am calling on Barbadians in this our month of Independence, when everyone is filled with national pride, wearing the colours, wearing the pins, the flags on their cars [and] the houses, to realise that their national duty is to contribute,” he said.

“COVID was terrible, I would not want to see anything like that again in my lifetime but it had some benefits. Surely it must have taught some of us who weren’t paying that you need to pay. If your income drops substantially, and you are not working, you have to draw on the benefits of the NIS. It’s our lifeline, as the saying goes.”
(SB)