NIS and citizens’ contributions

all its citizens can enjoy the best of life and let the immigrantsdo theirwork.I understand the Gulfs States is made up of one ethnic group and their government cannotbechallenged.

UnlessGuyaneseleaders are truly willing to have a meetingofthemindstofind asolutionofdecentralization thentheiroilrevenueswould meannothingandipsofacto the country will remain in a state of dissention Guyanese only have two options, A - Decentralize [ Federal System] or Partition the Country Guyanese what iswrongtobeliketheGulfs States? Let me get your comments. Regards, VassanRamracha.

DEAREDITOR, I refer to a recent letter writtenbyoneRoshanKhan about a person who was deemed to be “one contribution short” of qualifying for their NIS pensionbenefits.

Dozens of people have related over the years that, when they applied for their NIS pension, they were told that they were short by one contribution.Isthisapattern of behaviour of the staff in that office that they just deemed folks to be short by onesinglecontribution?

While it is possible that some people would be short by one single contribution, most of them said that they worked for reputable corporations who would have remitted the contributions, and they workedlongenoughtohave qualified.

I personally never received my pension from theNIS.Iworkedforalarge international company and when I resigned in 1989 to migrate, I requested a letter from my employers to be usedasareferenceabroad.I still have that letter but the NISsaidthatthecompanyis no longer in Guyana so they can’tverifyanything.

They informed me that I only made contributions in 1969.Well,Iwasinschoolin 1969. I started working in 1970. Where they arrived at that conclusion left me bewildered. Is it possible that when the NIS migrated to a computerised system that errorsweremadeintheinput of the information?Another point is why can’t the NIS paythepensiononaprorated basis as is done in most countries. E.g. If someone needs 750 contributions to qualify and they have 740, why can’t they receive 740/750 of the monthly benefits? Something needs to be done to make the system fair and equitable to all.TheMinisterresponsible needs to take a more proactive approach to this issue.

Regards, RahmanMohammed