Imbert: A third of Trinidad and Tobago’s workers don’t make NIS contributions

Where are the 200,000 people who work, but are not listed on the National Insurance scheme?

This question was raised by Finance Minister Colm Imbert, who along with the business community, defended the Government’s decision to increase the retirement age from 60 to 65, during the Trinidad and Tobago Manufacturers' Association's (TTMA) post-budget discussion at the Hyatt Regency in Port of Spain on Tuesday.

Imbert revealed that almost a third of the labour force in TT is not registered with the NIS.

“There is an interesting statistic that I discovered some years ago,” Imbert said. “Our labour force is around 600,000. But the number of people on the national insurance scheme is 400,000.
"So where are the 200,000 people?"

“You have a number of businesses who are not making their NIS contributions on behalf of their employees,” added TTMA president Ronald Roach.

“They go below the radar, and if the net is widened and we get contributions from more businesses, then that could help.”

Imbert described the move to raise the retirement age from 60 to 65 as “necessary and beneficial” on Tuesday.

He said the increase would significantly solve the deficit issues the National Insurance Board faces.

“More and more people are coming on to the insurance benefit scheme in terms of being in receipt than there are people coming in at the bottom in terms of the contributions. That has to be dealt with.”

He added that while some unions have been vocal about their disagreement with the higher retirement age, others have supported the idea. He said regardless of the debate, people are more productive at a higher age today than they were in years past.

“The NUGFW was demanding that we increase the retirement age, but the Public Services Association was demanding that we don’t increase the retirement age. The fact of the matter is that people are productive way beyond the age of 60.”

Roach also noted that, for businesses, increasing the retirement age made more sense than losing a capable and experienced employee.

“We asked ourselves, if you had an educated, skilled talented, able-bodied individual working in our organisation, would you want that person to retire at 60 simply because there is some regulatory ban? In most cases the answer is no, you want to retain the people who can continue to contribute to the growth and development of the corporation.”

“I always have difficulty (understanding the pushback),” Imbert added.

“If you are earning a salary, it is always going to be one-dimensional. In some cases your pension may be very small. Some don’t have a pension at all. Therefore why would you want to give up an extra five years of earning potential?”