Persad-Bissessar: Retirement at 65 should be a choice

Opposition Leader Kamla Persad-Bissessar says people should be able to choose whether they retire at 60 or 65.

Persad-Bissessar was responding to a recommendation in the National Insurance Board (NIB) report which was laid in Parliament on Friday.

The NIB, during a sitting of the Parliament’s Public Finance Committee on Wednesday, had suggested gradually increasing the retirement age from 60 to 65 to compensate for the reduction of contributors to the National Insurance Fund.

NIB executive director Naila Persad-Poliah said the ninth and tenth actuarial review, done to determine the level of expenditure versus benefit payments, predicted that from 2013 the contribution benefit would no longer be sufficient to support the benefit expenditure.

Persad-Poliah said, “Over the last two years, as of 2020, the contribution and investment income combined were insufficient to support benefit expenditure and administrative expenditure. We had to use not only investment income but cash and cash equivalents to support the deficit.”

During the United National Congress’s (UNCs) virtual report on Monday night, Persad-Bissessar said, “Any discussion on changing the retirement age will need serious consultations and, should that be the preferred option for the majority, it should be one that is by choice.

“That is to say, those who wish to go home at 60, fine. Those who wish to go at 65, fine. But you cannot tell a man who has worked his whole life, put his savings, paid his NIS every week or every month, ‘Sorry sir, you cannot get it. You have to wait until 65.’ You cannot continue like that.”

Persad-Bissessar also questioned the accuracy of the report which said there was an increase in contributors in 2021.

On Friday, Colm Imbert issued a statement praising the NIB for doing well in 2021. His overview of the report said the number of contributors in 2021 was recorded at 446,116 – increasing by 41,919 contributors, or 10.4 per cent, from 404,197 in 2020.

Persad-Bissessar said, “You know what they want to tell us in that report? They want to tell us that over 41,000 more people are contributing. You want to tell me in a year of lockdowns, businesses closing, 41,000 people getting jobs? That has to be a lie.

“If you have 41,000 more people working, how come you’re getting less money?”

She said the number of insured contributors declined from financial year 2016 to 2020 by 112,729.