NIB minister tells public “calm down” over delayed payouts

Some payouts delayed due to employers failure to pay

NASSAU, BAHAMAS — Hundreds of Bahamian workers are still awaiting on their first payment from the National Insurance Board some three months into the country’s COVID-19 shutdown.

Minister of Public Service and National Insurance Brensil Rolle said yesterday that the government agency is working to address several issues that have led to the delay of those payments.

“NIB is doing a very good job,” Rolle told reporters outside Cabinet.

“There are some hiccups in the road though when you are trying to provide a benefit for 40,000 individuals through the NIB system.

“Primarily the challenges come from individuals who work for small business companies.

“We are trying to address some of those. We are doing a major check run this week and we anticipate that a lot of the concerns that the individuals have expressed will be addressed.”

John Carey, 29, said he hasn’t received “one single dime” from NIB since he was sent home from the private cay where he lived and worked.

Carey asked that his name be changed for fear of reprisal.

He told Eyewitness News that he filed his claim in early April, just days after the government announced the initiative and his employers advised that they were temporarily closing.

He said he expected the claim would take some time to be processed given the number of people who did not have jobs at the height of the pandemic, but insisted that he did not expect it to take this long.

Carey said he has been surviving off the goodwill of his family and friends, but noted that at some point he deserves to be paid what he is entitled.

“I ready to go up there and cuss,” he said.

“This don’t make no sense”.

In a statement last week, NIB advised that it had paid over 34,000 unemployment benefit claimants over $60 million to date.

They noted that most recipients have received 8 to 10 weeks of benefit, as NIB prepares to process payments up to the 13-weeks maximum over the next week for many recipients.

Beatrice Johnson, who also asked to remain anonymous, said while she was among those who did receive an initial payment, she is still awaiting her remaining benefits.

Johnson is self-employed in the tourism industry. She said after the country was closed, everyone in her household, including her husband and son, were unemployed.

She said, however, she was the only one who qualified for the benefit through the government’s unemployment assistance program for self-employed persons.

Johnson insisted that while she is grateful for the relief, the wait and runaround is simply unacceptable.

Outside Cabinet yesterday, Rolle said there are two sides to every story.

“Individuals may say that have not received a check but they may not have paid, or their employer may not have paid,” Rolle said.

“So we are looking at those challenges and the government took the opportunity last week to try to address some of those individuals who are not fully qualified for the assistance and they will come in through a program initiated by Ministry of Finance and NIB will be the vehicle by which we try to address some of those issues.”

Rolle has previously said that no one will be denied benefits because of his/her employer’s failure to comply with the law.

Yesterday, he maintained that while this was still the case, those claims are taking longer to process because each claim has to be investigated.

“We have taken the position that if the employer did not make the contribution to NIB, NIB will go after the employer,” Rolle explained.

“But that process takes a bit longer than for individuals who have made their contributions

“We have said to individuals it is our duty to go after employers. We will do our best to make sure that the employees get the benefit they deserve and the social support that is necessary to keep them going.”

Rolle then recounted a story of a person who reached out to him over their claim. He said he later found that that person had received some 10 weeks of payment within the past 10 days but still had gripes about three-weeks missing.

“There’s a lot of noise in the market,” he said.

“Individuals sometimes expect more than they get…I urge the public to calm down. We will not not do our job. We will make sure anyone who is entitled to a benefit will get it.”