Minister of Finance Dr Ashni Singh yesterday instructed that with effect from July 2023, National Insurance Scheme (NIS) pension payments will be paid from the first working day of every month to align with Old Age Pension (OAP) payments.
Previously, NIS pension payments were made from the first Monday of every month.
A statement from the Ministry of Finance said that Senior Minister in the Office of the President with Responsibility for Finance, Singh, in keeping with an announcement made by President Irfaan Ali yesterday had mandated the new measure.
The statement said that this is part of Government’s broader agenda to improve, modernize and streamline its service-delivery to citizens.
Other measures taken thus far by the administration have been the NIS Online Contribution Checking System (OCCS) which is expected to reduce the incidence of inaccuracies, the WhatsApp life certificate hotline, WhatsApp Queries Textbook Service and NIS Live Chat, the statement said.
NIS payments are paid via the Guyana Post Office Corporation (GPOC), Commercial Banks and at NIS local offices countrywide and other payment options are currently being considered by Government, the statement said.
Recently Government expanded the payment options for OAP to include Mobile Money Guyana (MMG). This adds to the existing options of the GPOC, MoneyGram, Western Union, Sure Pay and Commercial Banks.
The statement said that a priority of the Government when it assumed office in 2020 was to address the complaints received from contributors to the NIS with pending claims at the time amounting to 14,000 as at November 2020. In support of this effort, Government at Cabinet level, undertook a series of outreach sessions that took the services of NIS to the citizens.
Persons across the country have benefitted from these sessions, many of whom are in receipt of Old Age Pension after waiting for a number of years, the statement said. Of the 14,000 pending claims inherited in 2020, over 12,000 have been addressed, the ministry said.
Speaking at the launch of the Good Hope Secondary School yesterday, Ali said that during a community visit on Tuesday a pensioner approached him with the idea and he immediately agreed to it.
“I said that `oh my God that is a brilliant idea because immediately it reduces the burden of the pensioner to go twice and reduce the cost of transportation to go twice’ and so last night I called the Minister of Finance and said we must do this immediately. So today the circular went out,” Ali announced to loud applause.
