Newsday columnist Debbie Jacob to receive NIS payments

“The power of the pen” is how Newsday columnist Debbie Jacob is describing the service she received from the National Insurance Board (NIB) after an article was published in the paper on Monday. She said she was told her payments would be deposited in her account by Wednesday.

Jacob said she was contacted by a representative of the NIB on Monday to say that investigations had been carried out into her application and concluded at the end of November.

She said she turned in all her paperwork in March this year, and was told that everything was approved at the beginning of June, but an investigation had to be done because she applied late. Jacob was asked to submit a letter saying she had applied after the deadline of a year after she turned 65.

“What kind of investigations take six months to realise I applied late?

"I don’t think people know that it’s not automatic that you get your NIS payments once you retire. You have to fill out your paperwork as soon as you turn 65 and then it might take months to process it. It’s an arduous, degrading process.”

Jacob said she was grateful to have been assisted by Newsday but worried about other people who were going through the same rigmarole she had.

“I tried to make a point that they must move faster because there are people who depend on their NIS cheques and don't expect it to take months to years to process those payments. I heard so many stories of people online about what they had to go through to get their NIS payments.”

Jacob, who is still awaiting a call about her citizenship, for which she has been applying over the last 30 years, says the public service as a whole should not be allowed to get away with the low level of service it offers to the public.

“They give people a runaround. I don’t want people to think it’s just me– it’s everybody. They don’t care what you do, they don’t care how much you contribute, they just think their job is nothing to do but frustrate you and they get a petty sense of power from it.”