Ministry Strengthens Community Partnerships to Expand Social Support Reach

The Ministry of Labour and Social Security has been actively partnering with community-based organisations to reach elderly citizens and other vulnerable individuals in need of social support programmes.

Chief Technical Director (CTD), Audrey Deer-Williams, told JIS News that nearly 150,000 individuals are currently receiving pensions under the National Insurance Scheme (NIS), alongside 66,000 older persons supported through the Programme of Advancement Through Health and Education (PATH), and 16,000 beneficiaries of the Social Pension Programme.

“As you can imagine, a lot of persons try to access our programmes… so we partner a lot with persons in the community. We’re finding a lot of demand from churches and other NGOs (Non-Governmental Organisations). When they have their fairs or other information sessions, they reach out to our staff in the parishes to partner with them to give information,” she said.

Mrs. Deer-Williams noted that at outreach fairs, staff are equipped with the requisite tools to facilitate on-site processing of applications.

Meanwhile, the CTD indicated that the Government has implemented measures to safeguard the long-term sustainability of social programmes.

She highlighted the National Insurance Fund (NIF), which is financed through National Insurance contributions and serves as the source from which pensions and other benefits under the NIS are disbursed.

“So this was a matter that was front of mind for the Government and, some years ago, we did reforms to the National Insurance Scheme. One of the reforms we did was to put in law that every three years, we are required to do the actuarial review to establish the sustainability of the National Insurance Fund. So, we ensure, through our actuarial reviews, which are current, that the Fund is sustainable,” Mrs. Deer Williams stated.

The National Insurance Fund was established, pursuant to Section 39 of the National Insurance Act.