NIS 2019 Annual Report reveals disturbing statistics

EVEN as the National Insurance Scheme (NIS) paid out an increase number of pensions and benefits, and increased its staff complement during 2019, employers, employees and self-employed persons have recorded low contributions rates.

This is according to the NIS 2019 Annual Report which was laid in Parliament last Wednesday.
According to the report, only 26.6 per cent, or 8,320 of the 31,203 employers registered with the Scheme as of the end of 2019 are actively paying their contributions while 22.7 per cent or 168, 847 of the 741, 419 employees/registrants were active.

Additionally, of the 35,626 self-employed persons that were registered with the Scheme, just 8,467 were active.
The report did not expand on the reason/s behind the large number of inactive cases.

Established in 1969, NIS is a social security organisation which provides social insurance coverage on a compulsory basis, to all persons between the ages of sixteen and sixty years who are engaged in insurable employment. Coverage is also extended on a voluntary basis, to persons who cease such employment before reaching the age of sixty years, until the attainment thereof.

The Scheme is managed by a government-appointed Board. The current General Manager is Holly Greaves.
By the end of 2019, the Scheme was paying a total of 38,175 old age pensions at an average of $31,642 per claimant, with 2,856 new old age pensions being awarded and 1,650 awards having been terminated during the year. The new pensioners qualified with an average of 1,188 to their credit. This new pension number, marked an increase of the 2,627 that were awarded in 2018.

Aside from old age pensions, NIS paid out a total of 1,170 old age grants at an average of $84,773.
For 2019, the Scheme registered another 640 new employers, and 9,502 new registrants. The new employers marked a 40 per cent increase on the previous year; 458 new employers registered with the scheme in 2018.
Meanwhile, the 9,502 new registrants represented a 22 per cent decrease from the 12,713 new registrants recorded in 2018.

Speaking about the new employers that registered with the Scheme, the report said: “590 were small scale suppliers, each employing no more than 10 persons… only three employers or one pre cent employed in excess of 100 persons… the services sector accounted for 225 or approximately 35 per cent.”

Of the 9,502 new registrants, 4,913 were female and 4,589 were male, while 9,454 were between the ages of 16 to 59 years old. Eight of the registrants were under 16 years old, and 40 were 60 years and over. The average age of the registrants was 23 years old.

Another 492 self-employed persons were registered during the year, of which 297 were males and 195 were females, and this marked a 33 per cent decrease on the 739 self-employed persons that were registered in 2018.

MORE BENEFITS PAID OUT
In the case of sickness benefits, the scheme processed 53,251 claims for 2019 of which 34,320 were disallowed. The 18,931 that were paid represented a 25 per cent increase over the 15,140 benefits paid in 2018.
Classifying the claims that were disallowed, the report noted that 8,534 claims were for spells of less than four days duration, 12,872 of the claimants were paid full wages by their employers, 1,670 claimants provided insufficient information for the processing of their claims and three were non-priority claimants.

Other reasons for disallowed claims were that 948 claimants were over the age for receipt of the benefit, 300 had reached the maximum period for the benefit, that is, 26 weeks of payment; 4,172 did not satisfy the contribution requirements; 519 submitted duplicate claims; 243 claims were in error; 2,784 were disqualified for late submission; 42 were disallowed for late paid contributions and 727 were transferred. Additionally, 897 were as a result of claimants’ non-incapacity for work, 285 were as a result on non-insurability and 20 claimants submitted duplicate medical certificates.

Of the remaining claims that were disallowed, a number of claims were being investigated, several others were deemed not entitled, some submitted invalid medical certificates and in some cases the contributions were being investigated.

Another 18,439 claims were submitted for the reimbursement of medical expense incurred through sickness were also paid out, comparatively 19,954 were paid out in 2018.

A total of 6,286 maternity claims were paid out in 2019, an increase of the 4,388 paid in 2018. A total of 2,232 maternity grants, 885 injury benefits, 11 disablement pensions, 10 disablement grants, and two industrial death pensions were also paid.

For invalidity benefits, another 64 persons became eligible and were paid an average of $46,196 monthly, while 79 were removed from the facility. Overall at the end of the year, a total of 553 persons were receiving this benefit. Five invalidity grants were paid during 2019.

For survivor’s pension, for the year 2019, 634 new recipients were awarded in this category, while 205 pensions were terminated, leaving a net total of 14,836 benefits in payments at the end of the year.

There were 46 awards for survivor’s grants in 2019, at an average of $274,850. The number of new recipients represented a 16 per cent decrease from the 55 awards in 2018.

The organisation also increased its staff complement during 2019, starting the year with 607 staff members and ending with 636, of which 615 were permanent and 21 were temporary.