My response to the Guyana-NIS Pension Qualification Regulations!

[DerryckMimbari]

http://mimbari.livejournal.com/

September 15-2010:

My response to the Guyana-NIS Pension Qualification Regulations!

ATTENTION:

As a former employee of The Guyana National Insurance Scheme. I
ensured that I contributed the prescribed amount as at September
01-1989, (750 contributions). This is the total amount that makes a
contributor eligible for the NIS Pension.

I left Guyana in May-1989 to reside in the USA. I am now 60 years of
age, and I get the impression that should I return to my homeland
Guyana, I would not be ineligible for the NIS Pension that I
contributed to, and are legally eligible to receive, according to the
NIS Regulations of 1969.

If this is the current reality in Guyana, then something MUST be done
to ensure that it is re-instated forthwith, or have this matter
addressed in A Court Of Law, within or without Guyana.

Derryck S. Griffith.
NYC.

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http://www.conversationtree.gy/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=40:the-nis-and-pensioners&catid=1:blog&Itemid=3

THE NIS AND PENSIONERS

Written by Ralph Ramkarran

Monday, 29 March 2010 12:23
The National Insurance Scheme which was established by the PNC
Government during its term of office was an act of foresight. It has
provided a vital safety net for thousands of Guyanese faced with
illness or disability arising from accidents during the course of
employment. The contributions are burdensome for the lower paid and
the benefits are wholly inadequate. But were it not for the NIS,
nothing would have been forthcoming. It is to the credit of successive
PNC and PPP/C Governments to have ensured the survival of the NIS
which has the critical support of all Guyanese.

Under the National Insurance and Social Security Act, persons who are
between the ages of sixteen and sixty and who are gainfully occupied
in insurable employment are required to be insured and to remain so
insured for life. Persons who are insured are entitled to a range of
assistance including invalidity benefit, survivor’s benefit, sickness
benefit, maternity benefit, funeral benefit, child care benefit and
constant attendance benefit.

Upon the attainment of age 60, even though still insured according to
the Act, the benefits available before retirement at the age of 60,
which are set out above, are no longer available. The NIS no longer
wants to hear from you. The only benefit payable is a modest and
inadequate old age pension.

The retirement age in Guyana is 55. For those who have laboured in
the sugar estates or the bauxite mines, their broken bodies do not
allow them to work much after 55 anyway. Salaries which are payable
for these and other non-professional employment are inadequate to
enable such employees to buy annuities or make any savings substantial
enough to significantly supplement the pension payable from the NIS.

Upon retirement therefore, at age 55 or a little older, many Guyanese
face the daunting prospect of having to survive on an inadequate
income even though expenses are likely to be greater.

An insured person is entitled to medical expenses if s/he gets ill.
Consultation, hospitalization, surgical operations, cost of drugs are
all paid for by the NIS to a doctor or a hospital of the insured’s
choice. There is a recognition by the NIS in this policy that the
services offered by the Georgetown Hospital, though considerably
improved, might not be adequate to serve the needs of all insured
persons.

As soon as an insured person attains the age of 60 these benefits
cease. If consultation with a doctor, hospitalization, surgery or
drugs are required, no help is forthcoming from the NIS even though
this is the time when such benefits are most needed. And it is at this
time that the pensioner can hardly afford it. By this time s/he is
likely to have retired. As a person gets older s/he is more likely to
require medical services than those who are younger.

Age brings a variety of potential illnesses and many succumb to these
even if they may have made efforts to ensure that they had a healthy
lifestyle. These ailments include hypertension, diabetes, high
cholesterol, heart disease and others. These generally arise in the
vicinity of 50 to 60 years and they require lifelong, expensive
medication. After 60 the NIS does not want to know. It will pay no
medical expenses and now it will not pay for any drugs. An insured
person therefore spend his/her working life paying for insurance,
hardly utilizing the benefits during his/her younger years when health
is usually more robust, then when the assistance is needed after 60,
it is not available.

The NIS makes a concession to pensioners by allowing them the cost of
drugs. This is a major source of assistance for pensioners who can at
least look forward to this modest relief. However, pensioners are at a
great disadvantage. After a lifetime of support for and contribution
to the NIS, they lose the benefits, particularly medical benefits,
when they need it most. They issue is not whether or not they will
need the assistance. As pensioners get older they develop ailments
which require medical assistance. They face the prospect of having to
step down from the fast and more effective services offered by private
doctors and hospitals to the slower and more ponderous, though
increasingly effective, attention given by the Georgetown Hospital or
Regional Hospitals.

Actuarial and other studies have been done in relation to the NIS but
these are not available. It is not known whether any have addressed
the dire situation of pensioners. If not this is a situation then
authorities need to address it with some urgency because pensioners
may well be in a situation where they need the help. It is highly
unfair for contributors to the NIS to be paying insurance for the
whole of their working lives, hardly making use of its facilities when
they are young and healthy, then when they really need assistance, it
is not available. Something is wrong with such a system. Pensioners,
though their situation is far better now than it ever was due to a
beneficent administration, are suffering a raw deal and it should be
addressed. (www.conversationtree.gy)