NIS WARNING: PAY UP OR GET PUBLISHED!

With over $1 million in arrears, the National Insurance Services (NIS) will soon be naming and shaming delinquent businesses.

“We are still seeing far too many persons reluctant to make their payments, we will have to start to show tough love,” NIS Executive Director Reginald Thomas told SEARCHLIGHT.{{more}}

In the first instance the names of the companies will be published in the local newspapers as a first step in an effort to recover the money.

Should that fail, the NIS will either seek to garnish the companies’ bank accounts or seize property for payment.

“$1 million arrears is far too high,” he said, though he added that figure could be conservative as the delinquent businesses were not submitting documentation which would reveal the true extent of the arrears.

NIS is mandatory for all workers. Their employers are required to deduct the NIS contribution and pay it into NIS but some were not doing it.

He said that despite the high arrears, the pension fund was not in danger and pensioners will continue to get their forthnightly cheque.

He told SEARCHLIGHT that he wanted people to start viewing the NIS as a way of helping people when they retire at age 60.

In 1989 when the NIS introduced its first reduced minimum pension the payout was about $260,000 per year paying a weekly pension of $25 to just over two hundred senior citizens.

Today the payout has increased to over $30 million per year with more than 3,000 pensioners receiving just over $385 every forthnight.