ST. GEORGE’S, Grenada, CMC – The Grenada government has successfully tabled legislation amending the National Insurance Act, allowing for an increase in the retirement age and a redefined meaning of the word child.
In addition, the amendment also allows for increased penalties for violating the measures contained in the legislation that was first passed in 1983.
According to the amendment, as of January 2024, the retirement age will increase incrementally by one year until 2028, when the retirement age will be 65.
Leader of Government Business in the Upper House, Adrian Thomas, said the amendments are intended “to preempt and bolster pending amendments to the national insurance benefit regulations and national employment injury benefits regulations to improve the benefits available to children of insured persons.”
One of the significant changes is the definition of the word “child” in the act.
The act, before the proposed amendment, said “child,” about an insured person, includes a step-child, an adopted child, and any other child, whether born in or out of wedlock under the age of sixteen, living at the home of an insured person and wholly or partly maintained by them.”
The approved amendments to the definition will allow for the child’s age to be increased to 18 years, and that child, whether or was maintained by the insured before the insured’s death, will be eligible for benefits under the scheme.
“We intend to put this bill into effect from the first of August 2023, and also, the related regulations will come into effect on that particular date,” Thomas said.
Social Development and Gender Affairs Minister Gloria Thomas said the bill was “timely and relevant,” adding that “if we are to save the NIS, the decision to extend the retirement age is one where crucial measure must be taken to assist in this rescue mission.
“Great leaders make hard decisions in the interest of people, and this decision to move the retirement age to 61 in January 2024 is indeed a hard one.
“The record shows that since 2002 recommendations were made to increase the pensionable age to keep the scheme viable, but the recommendations were ignored…21 years later, it took this administration to come forward to amend the legislation to make this possible.”
Thomas told legislators that the one-year-old National Democratic Congress (NDC) administration “inherited a situation where succession planning is woefully lacking in the public sector” and, as such, “extending the retirement age, will allow for time, to correct, in part, some of these deficiencies in the service.
“By extending the retirement age, it allows the government to help address the skill gap, where relevant, and to allow our knowledgeable and experienced senior workers to continue to contribute to our society and the NIS as well while the younger ones get the opportunity to understudy these experienced workers,” the Social Development Minister said.
Defending the decision to increase penalties for violating any part of Section 56 of the principal act, which deals with offenses such as failure to pay contributions, making false statements to receive benefits, and unlawfully deducting employees’ contributions, Thomas said the fine would increase from EC$1,000 to $5000 (One EC dollar=US$0.37 cents) “to deter attempts at abusing the social security mechanism.
“A law without this kind of penalty is a law without teeth. Therefore, it’s essential that we give the courthouse the necessary legislation that would ensure that the law can be applied,” Thomas said.
Additionally, the amendments allow the Minister responsible for the NIS to impose on any establishment or individual violating the regulations a penalty of EC$2,000, up from EC$500.
“We want to put all measures in place, not to find remedial solutions, but to take preventative measures of situations that may cause us to go in that direction,” said Thomas adding that “those are the reasons why we are taking and putting these measures in place because we believe that we have a responsibility and as a government, we must stand up to our responsibility.”
Attorney General and Minister for Legal Affairs Claudette Joseph said the bill “is a concise bill…with very far-reaching impact for the people and the application of the Act by the National Insurance Scheme.”
Members of the Opposition, including the Senator representing Business, Salim Rahaman, and Andre Lewis, who represent workers, supported the bill, even as Lewis pleaded for the government and employers to work together to improve the island’s healthcare systems.
“Employers must understand, even if the retirement age had remained at 60, that the older you get, there are some functions that you will not be able to do as efficiently or as quickly as in the past,” he added.
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