With­in one year, over 26,000 peo­ple have dropped out of the Na­tion­al In­sur­ance Board’s (NIB) data­base, fur­ther jeop­ar­dis­ing its abil­i­ty to make pay­ments.

Ac­cord­ing to da­ta pro­vid­ed by the NIB, on June 30, 2017, there were 479,036 peo­ple in the data­base pay­ing na­tion­al in­sur­ance con­tri­bu­tions month­ly.

By June 30, this year that num­ber had shrunk to 452,234 peo­ple —a to­tal of 26,802 peo­ple less.

Those fig­ures, how­ev­er, do not ac­count for the ei­ther 4,700 Petrotrin em­ploy­ees re­trenched weeks ago or the 554 TSTT em­ploy­ees sent home with­in the last month.

Na­tion­al in­sur­ance is a com­pul­so­ry de­duc­tion from the salary of work­ers over the age of 16 and cov­ers all who are em­ployed and reg­is­tered.

Reg­is­tra­tion is com­pul­so­ry, and em­ploy­ers who fail to pay ben­e­fits for their em­ploy­ees can be fined. Ac­cord­ing to the NIB web­site, “Em­ployed per­sons who earn $200 or more per week must be reg­is­tered and are re­quired to be con­trib­u­tors to the Na­tion­al In­sur­ance Sys­tem. These per­sons can claim a wide va­ri­ety of ben­e­fits.”

The web­site out­lines 23 ben­e­fits in sev­en cat­e­gories that are meant to “al­le­vi­ate the eco­nom­ic bur­dens of old age, dis­abil­i­ty, sick­ness, in­ca­pac­i­ty and death by pro­vid­ing in­come re­place­ment against tem­po­rary or per­ma­nent loss of earn­ing.”

In re­sponse to ques­tions sent by the Sun­day Guardian, NIB’s ex­ec­u­tive di­rec­tor, Niala Per­sad-Po­li­ah re­vealed that the Petrotrin re­trench­ment alone would see the NIB lose over $8 mil­lion a month.

“The re­cent re­trench­ments at Petrotrin will have an im­pact on the NIBTT as it will ac­count for con­tri­bu­tion in­come loss­es in ex­cess of $8 mil­lion month­ly. How­ev­er, the two new­ly formed com­pa­nies, Her­itage Pe­tro­le­um Com­pa­ny Ltd and Paria Fu­el Trad­ing Co Ltd are both reg­is­tered, and con­tri­bu­tion re­mit­tances are ex­pect­ed up­on their com­mence­ment of op­er­a­tions,” she wrote.

Both com­pa­nies are still in the process of hir­ing, and they are ex­pect­ed to ac­count for a to­tal of 1,000 em­ploy­ees when ful­ly op­er­a­tional.

For the 554 TSTT em­ploy­ees, the NIB will lose over $1.5 mil­lion in month­ly con­tri­bu­tions.

On No­vem­ber 17, 2017, Per­sad-Po­li­ah, told a Joint Se­lect Com­mit­tee (JSC) meet­ing in Par­lia­ment, that the NIB fund need­ed a $50 bil­lion cash in­jec­tion so it could make pay­ments in the com­ing years.

Back then, Per­sad-Po­li­ah said the fund stood at $25 bil­lion.

As of June 30, this year, Per­sad-Po­li­ah said the fund stands at al­most $28 bil­lion.

“Based on the au­dit­ed fi­nan­cials as at 30 June 2018, the to­tal fund stood at $27,827,327,000. It should be not­ed, how­ev­er, that al­though the fund has in­creased, this is in the short-term and on­ly due to the pru­dent man­age­ment by the NIBTT. If ben­e­fit ex­pen­di­ture con­tin­ues to ex­ceed con­tri­bu­tion in­come, as is pro­ject­ed, the fund will de­crease, and this is em­pha­sised in the 9th and 10th Ac­tu­ar­i­al Re­views.

“The sus­tain­abil­i­ty of the Fund re­mains NIBTT’s para­mount con­cern. Fis­cal pru­dence con­tin­ues to be ex­er­cised in all de­ci­sions. How­ev­er, we look for­ward to part­ner­ing for much-need­ed re­form mea­sures.”

But Per­sad-Po­li­ah said since the NIB does not pay un­em­ploy­ment ben­e­fits, the re­cent re­trench­ments are not ex­pect­ed to im­pact the ex­ist­ing fund.

“The NIBTT does not pro­vide un­em­ploy­ment ben­e­fits to work­ers; there­fore, there is no an­tic­i­pat­ed pay­out in re­spect of such claims for per­sons re­cent­ly re­trenched. The re­cent­ly re­trenched work­ers may claim ben­e­fits in ac­cor­dance with the Na­tion­al In­sur­ance Act, just as any oth­er in­sured per­son. It should be not­ed that per­sons who are not salaried em­ploy­ees will not qual­i­fy for short-term ben­e­fits.”

But with an age­ing pop­u­la­tion, the NIB fund con­tin­ues to be jeop­ardy.

Per­sad-Po­li­ah said one way the NIB can re­cov­er from the ex­pect­ed loss­es due to re­trench­ment is to con­tin­ue to hunt down er­rant em­ploy­ers who are not pay­ing their em­ploy­ees’ ben­e­fits.

“While the re­cent re­trench­ments will not re­sult in ad­di­tion­al pay­outs by the NIBTT, it is to be not­ed, how­ev­er, that our ben­e­fit ex­pen­di­ture will con­tin­ue to ex­ceed our con­tri­bu­tion in­come due to the age­ing pop­u­la­tion phe­nom­e­non that is be­ing ex­pe­ri­enced glob­al­ly. Reg­is­tra­tion of new em­ploy­ers is an on­go­ing ac­tiv­i­ty for the NIBTT and, as some em­ploy­ers go out of busi­ness, new busi­ness­es al­so emerge. NIBTT will, there­fore, fo­cus our ef­forts on com­pli­ance.”

She said in the last fi­nan­cial year, the NIB was able to re­cov­er $437 mil­lion in in­come ar­rears alone.

“Em­ploy­ers who are es­sen­tial­ly break­ing the law by their non-pay­ment of NIB con­tri­bu­tions on be­half of their em­ploy­ees will be our fo­cus go­ing for­ward to en­sure that they com­ply with their oblig­a­tions, not on­ly to their staff but to the coun­try as well. In the last fi­nan­cial year, the NIBTT was able to re­cov­er $437 mil­lion in re­spect of con­tri­bu­tion in­come in ar­rears. This com­pli­ance ef­fort will be in­ten­si­fied in the fu­ture.”