Senior Minister in the Office of the President with Responsibility for Finance, Dr Ashni Singh, has instructed the National Insurance Scheme (NIS) to ensure that pension payments be paid from the first working day of every month to align with old age pension (OAP) payments.
This instruction came after a pensioner suggested to President Irfaan Ali to have the payment be made available earlier.
President Irfaan Ali promised to pay the payments earlier. Previously, NIS pension payments were made from the first Monday of every month.
In a statement, the Ministry of Finance said that this adjustment is part of the government’s broader agenda to improve, modernise and streamline its service delivery to citizens.
“Other measures taken thus far by the administration have been the NIS Online Contribution Checking System (OCCS) which is expected to reduce the incidence of inaccuracies, the WhatsApp life certificate hotline, WhatsApp Queries Textbook Service and NIS Live Chat,” the statement said.
The statement added that NIS payments are paid via the Guyana Post Office Corporation (GPOC), Commercial Banks, and at NIS local offices countrywide and other payment options are being considered by the government.
Recently government expanded the payment options for OAP to include Mobile Money Guyana (MMG). This adds to the existing options of the Guyana Post Office Corporation (GPOC), MoneyGram, Western Union, Sure Pay and Commercial Banks.
“A priority of the Government, when it assumed office in 2020, was to address the complaints received from contributors to the NIS with pending claims at the time amounting to 14,000 as of November 2020.”
In support of this effort, the government, at the Cabinet level, undertook a series of nationwide outreach sessions that took the services of NIS to the citizens.
People across the country have benefitted from these sessions, many of whom are receiving Old Age Pensions after waiting for a number of years. Of the 14,000 pending claims inherited in 2020, over 12,000 have been addressed.
