Imagine men and women of this country making an honest day's work all their lives, year after year, working to support their families to the best of their abilities, making the necessary statutory contributions to the National Insurance Board (NIB) with the comfort that when the last day of work has been completed at age 60 at least they can collect their NIS benefit to pay for some of their daily expenses.
Well, this may be true for some but other have to go through great trials and tribulations at the NIB office before being able to claim this benefit even though they have more than met the required 750 contributions.
To begin with, some of these people, like my father began working in the construction industry, around 1970s. He cannot even remember if this is the correct year. 43 years of working, he cannot remember where he worked for some of the years but yet has accumulated sufficient contributions to receive the NIS benefit based on the NIS Contributions Statement provided by the NIB office.
The clerk at the NIB office located in Couva was very unhelpful and rude to this man of age 62, who simply just wants to collect his benefit after working all these years. Certain sections of his form was circled, even his signature and the place where he signed was "x" off and no guidance was provided as to what was incorrect about his signature or the date it was signed.
The first clerk (male) who spoke to my father said if he cannot remember where he worked to indicate just that, however, when he returned with the completed forms, another clerk (female) told him that their records revealed that he did work for the periods which he said did not remember.
Also, for the years that he indicated he was not employed he faced another a point of contention without any valid explanation by the NIB clerk. The clerk refused to accept his application until my father gets this information right. Do not forget he has the required contribution for this benefit. Actually over his lifetime has made 1117 contributions.
Does the NIB even consider that some people take odd jobs, work for several contractors/employers in just one year? At the end of the week, fortnight or month a salary is collected without taking a note of all the different companies that you work for, mainly because workers do not know the importance of this information until 40 years later when they have to face the NIB office.
What is sad about this situation is that although my father has 1117 contributions he cannot receive this benefit he has contributed towards all his life and there are more people in this country with this same problem.
The NIB office should be a bit more helpful to these retirees since some began to work in the '70s and '80s and cannot remember all the details of their employment not to mention the educational level of some of these individuals.
NIB needs to make the public more aware of all the information and records that employed individuals should to keep, obtain contribution statements probably every year or two to get their information corrected and that their employer is in fact remitting their contributions to NIB. It should educate the population to make this process simpler. I do agree that there is a Web site but not everyone has access or is computer literate especially at that age of retirement.
It would not hurt if the staff of NIB could be more pleasant and service-oriented since the benefits that people retirees are applying for are not being deducted from their salaries. Workers contributed in order to claim benefits, just assist them in completing the claim forms.
I do hope that someone at the NIB office is now aware of this situation that retirees face at their offices and implement a plan to alleviate some of their woes.
Melissa Matmungal,
California