National insurance at 59: Minister urges renewed sense of shared responsibility

Acting social security minister Sandra Husbands has called for a revival of community-minded values among Barbadians, warning that the spirit underpinning the island’s social security system is weakening at the grassroots level.

Standing in for labour minister Colin Jordan in an address to the National Insurance and Social Security Service’s (NISSS) 59th anniversary service at the St Matthias Anglican Church, she said:

“When I did some research to see the benefits offered by the National Insurance and Social Security Service, as compared to our Caribbean neighbours and even afar, we offer more benefits than most countries in the world, because we take seriously caring for one another, sharing with each other and this is important. 

Staff of the NISSS joined the St Matthias Anglican Church in celebrating the service’s 59th anniversary. (Photo Credit: Jenique Blegrave/Barbados TODAY)

“The challenge that I feel today is that while this is being exemplified in our social services, some of the strength of behaviour at the community level is beginning to weaken. And therefore, one of the things that we need to do is to start and reinforce in our communities the notion that we belong to each other. The notion that we have a responsibility for one another, and that we also have a responsibility to ourselves, and the National Insurance and Social Security Service exemplifies that for us.”

Barbadians serve one another through the scheme, with the gainfully employed supporting the retired, and the healthy and active caring for the ill and vulnerable, this generation safeguarding the next, Husbands said.

She pointed to the scheme’s evolution since 1967 in response to the needs of society, introducing the Health Service Contribution to sustain the Queen Elizabeth Hospital and the Resilience and Regeneration Fund, which is aimed at mitigating hardship and commercial loss during times of economic shock.

Referring to the name change from the National Insurance Scheme to the National Insurance and Social Security Service, she said the service is empowering self-employed people to contribute more flexibly, access an old age contributory pension, among other benefits, and build enterprises on a foundation of real income security.

“It has expanded access to non-contributory pensions, enriching quality of life of those with physical and mental disabilities. It is protecting future generations by advancing pension revitalisation measures that will keep the NIS Fund strong and sustainable. And most recently, it has supported the government’s effort to ease the burden on those who feel it most by administering the cost of living cash credit. In the hands of this institution, income protection is more than any single benefit.”

(JB)