Dear Editor,
“If you are 60 years old or over, and have made at least 750 contributions to NIS, you may qualify for a regular monthly pension. If you fall short of 750 contributions, you could qualify for a one-time payment. Under both situations, the respective amount is calculated based on NIS formulae as set forth in the National Insurance and Social Security Act: Chapter 36:01.” This statement appears straight forward but it obscures a few institutional flaws which helps to explain the frustration that many Guyanese (both at home and abroad) experience in having their NIS claims processed and finalized.
Critics have been pointing out the lengthy delays in settling many NIS claims and tend to attribute blame onto the NIS staff. Deeper insights however would point to institutional deficiencies as the main source of complaints. I believe that the PPP/C government recognizes this situation and has moved forward to conduct NIS outreaches in Guyana to address claimants’ complaints at a different level. The Guyanese diaspora members have also become vocal in raising several issues regarding their claims for NIS benefits. Because of their persistence, their voices have been heard at the highest level of government.
When President Irfaan Ali visited New York in October 2023 to attend the UN General Assembly, he squeezed in some time to meet with Guyanese at Jamaica, Queens, New York City. He provided an update on Venezuela’s illegal claim to 2/3 of Guyana’s territory as well as on the positive social and economic developments taking place in Guyana.
In responding to questions, the President stated then that since most of the complaints that he gets are from Guyanese having problems with their NIS claims, he would send a NIS team to New York to work with claimants to resolve their issues. A 5-member NIS team led by NIS General Manager Ms. Holly Greaves arrived in New York last week and immediately began to review NIS claims.
The NIS team conducted outreaches in Brooklyn on Saturday November 4, and in Schenectady on Sunday November 5, and in Queens on Monday November 6, 2023. Over 600 cases were reviewed (at Brooklyn, Queens, and Schenectady, New York) by the NIS team which worked extremely hard and put in extra hours to settle cases and to figure out how others could be resolved. The NIS team was ably assisted by Ambassador Michael Brotherson, Guyana Consul General and his NY Consulate staff. In general, people wanted to know when they would get feedback from NIS on the status of their claims.
The NIS Manager assured them that a special unit at NIS will be set up to process their requests and that they should expect to hear from NIS before December 31, 2023. She emphasized also that this was the instruction of the President and that they must therefore meet the December deadline. The biggest challenge for the NIS team has been to validate claims that have “missing records of service.”
Many claimants complained about their inability to obtain records of their contribution from the Ministry of Education, GuySuCo, and some private businesses, some which no longer exists. For missing records, NIS has been asking claimants to submit authorized letters from employers covering their service. Some claimants believe that such requests should be the responsibility of NIS! This outreach allowed some people to apply for the first time for their NIS benefit as well as allowed others to submit their Life Certificate so that their benefits could be restored after having been stopped because of non-receipt of the Life Certificate by NIS.
There were also a few cases where people had difficulties in accessing survivor’s benefits and where pension money drawn by a representative was not given to the pensioner. The large crowd that gathered at Liberty Palace, Liberty Avenue, Richmond Hill, New York City, expressed displeasure at the long waiting time to process their NIS claims. Their frustration led to some of them leaving the outreach without their case being reviewed. Claimants did not seem to understand the need for record validation: the problems they raised could not be solved quickly; those require research and contact with other government agencies and private businesses. The NIS team conducted themselves professionally.
To operate in a makeshift office to process about 400 claims in Queens alone in just one day was unsettling. The NIS team had to struggle to process/review all the requests; the workload for one day was very heavy. It would have accentuated had it not been for the support of the Guyana Consulate staff. Notwithstanding, many claimants had their issues resolved, while some claimants remain optimistic about the outcome, but others remain skeptical. The NIS claims procedure is not clear to most Guyanese diasporans. What is apparent is that the NIS Board should clearly lay out and publish the broad outlines of the qualifications required for NIS benefits and stating who has the obligation to provide records of service or other related documents. There must be a national program of education for both employers and employees.
It is imperative that institutional deficiencies be eliminated to allow the smooth flow for processing NIS claims. Vigorous efforts must also be made to ensure that private companies, local and regional governments, remit their employees’ contribution in a timely manner to NIS. The NIS Board should consider the feasibility of employees “buying back” contributions to allow them to qualify for a monthly pension because they had fallen short of the qualifying amount (750) by a few contributions, as happens with similar insurance in other countries.
Sincerely,
Tara Singh