Dear Editor,
The National Insurance Scheme started sometime in the year 1969. When it started, most people were against its implementation because it reduced the spending power from wages and salary. It also caused us to question which direction Guyana was going. Today, the NIS pension is the financial backbone of people who have contributed unwillingly towards the scheme. Thanks to the late President Linden Forbes Burnham who was chastised verbally by many of us who are today giving praise and thanks to him for many things including the NIS.
At Linden’s NIS branch office, on pension day, pensioners have to mount or climb 21 steps in order to change cheques or transact other business. This situation has been in existence for a very, very long time. Pensioners are becoming older and most likely weaker and more are added daily to the list. For that reason, the NIS management must find a better way to spare the elderly and the lame from climbing to the top floor to conduct business.
As a pensioner myself, I must commend the hard working staff of Linden for their patience and understanding while attending to the elderly. Keep on working and work harder, your pension time though it seems far, is not so far away.
There is an old saying “thoughts put into practice can be good or bad”. Let us stop trying and start doing in order to move forward.
Yours faithfully,
B. Winslow Parris
