NHT Extends Cash Refund For Public-Sector Workers

The National Housing Trust (NHT) is to extend the cash refund granted to public-sector workers to April 2022.

This was announced by Prime Minister, the Most Hon. Andrew Holness, during his contribution to the 2021/22 Budget Debate in the House of Representatives on March 18.

Since 2016, some 26,300 public-sector mortgagors have been receiving their contribution refund in cash, annually.

This cash refund is unlike what obtains for regular mortgagors whose contribution refund is paid directly to their NHT mortgage accounts.

“When this provision was initially established, it was based on the economic situation, which resulted in a wage freeze under the Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) between public-sector workers and the Government,” Mr. Holness said.

“In my 2018/19 Budget presentation, I spoke of extending the cash refund granted by the NHT to eligible public-sector workers and indicated that the period of extension would end this year, 2021,” he said.

He noted, however, that with the impact of COVID-19, such an extension is needed once again.

Also as part of the COVID-19 effort, the NHT will allow persons who have been unemployed for a period of 12 months or more, to access their contribution refund one year in advance.

“Therefore, if the contributor’s refund is due for the year 2013 and that contributor has lost his/her job due to the pandemic, the contributor could access their refund for 2013, but they could also access, their refund for 2014. The proposed implementation date for this initiative is July 2021. The initiative will expire in July 2022,” Mr. Holness said.