Las Cuevas man struggles to get NIS payments

Las Cuevas resident Jeto Singh, 70, has not received his national insurance (NIS) payments for four months. Each time he inquires at the National Insurance Board (NIB) he gets the same response - another month of non-payment.

Since June, Singh said,
"Nothing came in. Every time I go to the office they keep saying next month and it going on four months now.”

He has visited the Wrightson Road, Barataria, and Tunapuna NIB branches, “and no one can give an explanation why they stopped the payment.”

When he has gone to NIB, Singh has been told he would get a lump sum for the missed payments on the next monthly payment date. NIS payments are issued on the sixteenth of each month.

Singh, a retired store hand with 20 years' service at the Ministry of Works, said for the past eight years he hadreceived his monthly payments without problems, although: "The first two years, they give me a little runaround."

On Monday, Singh visited the NIB office on Charlotte Street, where they sent him back to NIB on Wrightson Road.

In weeks past, he had inquired there without any change. He went to the St James NIB branch as well and was again sent back to Wrightson Road.

Singh says the process of inquiring at NIB is a trial.

Transport from Las Cuevas is costly at $16 one way and the PTSC bus service is free to senior citizens but irregular.

Calls to the NIB customer service agency to inquire about Singh’s situation went unanswered after 30 minutes.

During a previous call, the NIB agent refused to disclose any information to Newsday. She took Singh’s number but never called him