A woman whose husband died in November last year says she is dissatisfied with the service provided at the National Insurance Scheme (NIS) after she was pushed around when she applied for funeral and survivor’s benefits.
Germina Rampersaud, an East Coast Demerara resident, in a letter to this newspaper on March 15 said when she applied at the NIS office, Brickdam for her husband’s funeral expenses she had all of the documentation that was listed on the application form only to be told that she also had to have her birth certificate. She returned the next day with the birth certificate and after being told that her application was clear, she was then made to go back and forth over various queries and has still not gotten the benefits.
In a response, after Stabroek News had sent the letter to the NIS, the Scheme said that several queries still had to be cleared up.
Rampersaud said in her letter that when she arrived at the NIS Head Office, Brickdam she was told she needed to supply a birth certificate which had not been listed as a requirement on the application form. Nevertheless, the woman said she provided the document the next day despite the fact that she had to travel all the way from the East Coast. She added that after returning with her birth certificate she was told to go back in about a month to collect a cheque for monies payable to her including the survivor’s benefit. A month later, she went back to the NIS and that was when a series of other issues arose. She said she was told that they has the cheque ready but wanted to know who had paid the costs for the funeral parlour and the cremation. Rampersaud responded that it was her son Khemraj Rampersaud and the official then told her that her son would have to authorize her to collect the cheque. Rampersaud said that she duly got the authorization and returned to the NIS at which time she was told to return to collect the cheque or it could be posted to her. Rampersaud said she opted for the cheque to be posted.
Rampersaud said she waited for the cheque but instead received a letter from the NIS asking a number of questions. Rampersaud said that accompanied by her son, she then went to NIS at which time an employee in the cage said that the letter asking more questions should not have been sent to her. Rampersaud said that it appeared that payment was about to be made when another NIS employee asked to view her husband’s death certificate. The employee, according to Rampersaud, looked at the certificate and said the date of death was not recognizable and thus she could not approve the payment.
She was referred by the employee in the cage to the Georgetown Public Hospital (GPH) for the date of death to be “brightened up”. At the GPH she was told by a clerk that there was no record of the date of death and she would have to go to the office in the district. She went to the Plaisance office only to be told that the documents had been sent to the registry and she would have to await the official death certificate. When she wrote the letter, she was still awaiting the death certificate before returning to the NIS office.
Rampersaud queried why she was required to take the death certificate back since she had already submitted it when she first visited the NIS to fill out the application form and it was accepted.
The NIS has in the past been accused of creating frustrating conditions for pensioners and other members of the public.
Other customers of the NIS have complained routinely about service from the scheme.
Back in July 2013, Barbara Cyrus complained of being pushed around at NIS. She said her 92-year-old immobile mother, Jane C Cyrus had been a widow since 1995 and migrated to USA after living at Hopetown, West Coast Berbice.
She added that the last cheque her mother received from NIS was in 2005. “Almost a year ago we completed the life certificate for overseas pensioners, had it notarized and forwarded it to the Fort Wellington Office for them to begin the processing of her benefits that are due. We would like to visit when her money is ready to be uplifted, I had someone check the Fort Wellington office repeatedly and we are getting the royal runaround.” Cyrus said.
Cyrus said she was told that NIS could not find the form which we completed twice while stating that the application for processing through the Fort Wellington Office was not the only one. In the end, Cyrus said she was told by NIS to fill out another life certificate and forward it to them for the third time.
Replying to Rampersaud’s letter to Stabroek News, the NIS said the claims have not been processed due to three queries of which one has been resolved. The other two are:
1. A query relating to the legibility of the deceased person’s registration of death form, which cannot be used.
2. A query about the surname on the claimant’s birth certificate being different from the surname stated on her marriage certificate.
The NIS said that it was explained to the claimant by the Pension Section what needs to be done.
“The National Insurance Scheme wishes to reassure the claimant that payments will be made as soon as the necessary requirements are met”, the letter signed by Dianne Lewis-Baxter said.
The letter did not address the conflicting information Rampersaud said she had received and the back and forth visits that she had to make to the NIS.
