The National Insurance Scheme (NIS) saw a 16.5% rise in income for 2022 and a hefty boost to its insurance fund. The 2023 report is not yet available..
In previous years, the NIS had faced a grave deficiency in income amid growing expenses. There has however been a turnaround for 2022 and this is being linked to the increased collections due to the growth of jobs in the oil and gas industry where salaries are generally higher.
According to the report, total income for 2022 was $32.1b which reflected a 16.5% growth over the 2021 figure. The benefits paid for the year rose by 5.15% to $30.4b. The total expenditure for 2022 was $32.2b which left a deficit of $98m but much improved over the previous year when the deficit was $3.9b.
There was a whopping gain on revaluation of fair value on investments which left the National Insurance Fund at $43.2b. The figure at the end of 2021 was $29.8b.
The notes to the financial statements showed a large increase of contributors to the scheme. In 2021 there were 9,147 self-employed persons contributing. In 2022 that number was 10,038. In 2021, there were 165, 186 employed contributors. In 2022 that number jumped to 218,167.
A total of 14,936 employed persons were registered during the year. Of this total, the report said that 7,043 or approximately 47% were males and 7,893 or approximately 53% were females. An analysis by marital status reveals that 10,936 or approximately 73% of the new registrants were single, 1,540 or approximately 10% were married and the remaining 2,460 or around 17% were either widowed, divorced, separated or in common-law relationships.
An analysis by age shows that 14,684 of the registrants were ages 16 years to 59 years and 252 were 60 years and over. Of the 14,684 registrants, 6,905 or approximately 47% were males and 7,779 or approximately 53% were females. Further, 9,525 or approximately 65% of the new registrants ages 16 to 59 years, were in the age-group (16-24) years, 3,600 or approximately 25% were in the age-group (25-39) years and 1,093 or approximately 7% were in the age-group (40-49) years. The age-group (50-59) years accounted for 466 or approximately 3% of the new registrants.
According to the report a total of 3,137 Old Age Pensions were awarded during 2022. Of this total, 1,868 or approximately 60% were awarded to males and 1,269 or approximately 40% were awarded to females. An examination of the new Pensioners by Employment Category reveals that 2,736 or approximately 87% were Employed Persons, while 401 or approximately 13% were Self-Employed Persons. A further assessment showed that of the 2,736 Employed Persons, 1,626 were males and 1,110 were females. There were also 242 Self-Employed males and 159 Self-Employed females who received Old Age Pensions. The ages of the new Pensioners ranged from 60 years to 85 years.
The average age of the new pensioners was 61 years and their average monthly rate of pension was $53,821, the report revealed. An examination of the contribution status shows that the new pensioners qualified with an average of 1,188 contributions, of which approximately 99.68% were paid by or on behalf of the pensioner and approximately 0.32% was credited. The males were awarded pensions on an average of 1,194 contributions and the females, on an average of 1,179 contributions. Approximately 0.24% of the average contributions of males and 0.46% of females were credited contributions.
Sickness benefit
During 2022, a total of 61,234 claims for Sickness Benefit were processed. Of this amount, 38,921 were disallowed while 22,313 were paid. The report said that of the 38,921 claims which were not paid, 9,313 claims were for spells of less than four days duration, 16,121 of the claimants were paid full wages by their employers, 1,967 claimants provided inadequate information for the processing of their claims, while 1 was not a priority claimant. Further, 1,035 claimants were over the age for receipt of the benefit, 319 had reached the maximum period for the benefit, which is, twenty-six weeks of payment, 4,490 claimants did not satisfy the contribution requirements for receipt of the benefit, 502 submitted duplicate claims, 214 claims were logged in error, 1,133 claims were disqualified for late submission, 43 claims were disallowed for late paid contributions and 1,319 were transferred. Further, 1,234 were as a result of the claimants’ non-incapacity for work, 339 were as a result of non-insurability and 11 claimants had submitted duplicate medical certificates.
Of the remaining claims unpaid, 2 claims were being probed, 65 claimants were not entitled to the benefit, 2 claimants’ accounts were invalid, 11 claimants were in receipt of Old Age/ Invalidity pension and 37 claimants had presented invalid medical certificates. In addition, 711 contributions were under investigation, 3 claimants were overpaid on previous claims, 2 claims were rejected for serious willful misconduct and 47 claimants are deceased. In relation to the 22,313 claims which were paid, 11,098 or approximately 49.74% were in respect of males and 11,215 or approximately 50.26% were in respect of females.
Funeral grant
During 2022, the report said that a total of 1,958 claims for Funeral Benefit were processed. Of this figure, 456 were not paid and 1,502 were paid. Of the 456 cases which were not paid, 147 persons did not provide sufficient information for the claim to be processed, 115 were disqualified for late submission, 5 submitted duplicate claims and 6 did not satisfy the contribution requirement. Further, 26 of the claims were logged in error, 31 were non-priority claimants, 55 were due to overpayment on previous claims and 71 were transferred. Of the 1,502 claims which were paid, 1,104 or roughly 74% were related to males and 398 or approximately 26% were related to females. The distribution of the claims paid by employment category shows that 1,336 or approximately 89% were in respect of employed persons and 166 or approximately 11% were in respect of self-employed persons. Of the 1,336 claims paid in the employed category, 49 were on behalf of persons who were directly insured and 1,287 were for persons whose spouses were insured. Similarly, in the self-employed category, 7 of the deceased persons were directly insured and 159 were the spouses of insured persons.
