$260K to $650K one-off grants for thousands of pensioners falling short of full NIS contributions

…as Govt promises more injections into NIS in new term

President Dr Irfaan Ali has announced one-off grants ranging from $260,000 to $650,000 for pensioners who do not have 750 contributions to qualify for the National Insurance Scheme (NIS) pension.
This measure is made possible by the $10 billion which the Government had set aside in Budget 2025 for a one-off payment injection in NIS to address challenges faced by persons who fell marginally short of their contributions to receive a pension from the scheme.
During a live broadcast from State House on Thursday morning, the Head of State explained that this one-off payout will be applicable to persons who attained the age of 60 on or before December 31, 2024, with only 500 to 749 NIS contributions.
For instance, those with 500 to 549 NIS contributions will receive a one-off payment of $260,000; while persons with 550 to 599 contributions will receive $390,000; those with 600 to 699 NIS contributions will get $520,000; and persons with 700 to 749 NIS contributions will have a payment of $650,000.
According to President Ali, “This measure will see a total of over $10 billion of additional disposable income being placed in the hands of over 25,000 of our senior citizens.”
With NIS already having a database of pensioners within these various categories, the Head of State noted that the distribution of these one-off payments would commence as early as today.
For those pensioners falling within this category who have not yet submitted their documents, the President urged them to do so at the various NIS offices and the outreaches that the Finance Ministry and NIS would be doing jointly.
“I wish to reiterate that my government remains fully committed to ensuring that the senior citizens of Guyana, who have given their best years in service to our country, can retire with dignity and the respect they deserve,” Ali stated.
This latest initiative added to various measures introduced over the years by the People’s Progressive Party/Civic (PPP/C) Government to improve the quality of life of senior citizens across the country. These include the doubling of the Old Age Pension from $20,500 in 2020 to $41,000 this year – a move that has benefited over 76,000 pensioners, and has resulted in a total Old Age Pension payout of some $37 billion being transferred to senior citizens this year.
Other interventions include the reintroduction of water and electricity subsidies for pensioners, improved services for Old Age Pension collection, and eye care support to almost 19,000 senior citizens, with another 7000 shut-in elderly persons benefitting from home-based medical care.
Meanwhile, President Ali had first announced the $10 billion injection into the NIS during his address to the Parliament in October 2024, specifically targeting those persons who fall marginally short of the 750-contribution requirement to be eligible for an NIS pension.
The Head of State pointed out on Thursday that during the various community outreaches, pensioners from across the country have been complaining of not getting any benefits because they do not meet the NIS contribution requirement.
“This was not only burdensome on the NIS system, but also we committed that we want to help people. We want to find ways in which we can make it easier for our citizens, especially the elderly, especially those persons who are now at an age in which they should be comfortable and they should also benefit from whatever contribution they made in the system,” President Ali stated during his broadcast.

More injections
In keeping with the Government’s efforts to improve the efficiency of NIS operations and enhance support for contributors and retirees, the scheme resolved numerous queries for citizens during outreaches and processed over 103,000 benefit claims between 2020 and 2024.
Over the years, however, the NIS has been paying out more benefits than the contributions it receives, sparking concerns that the scheme would plunge into bankruptcy if this trend continued.
But during a subsequent press conference on Thursday, Vice President Bharrat Jagdeo stated that the PPP/C Administration will not allow this to happen and will inject more funds into the NIS to ensure that it continues to serve contributors.
In fact, the $10 billion injection by central government for the one-off payout removes the financial burden from the scheme to fund such an initiative.
According to Jagdeo, “We will make major injections from the treasury and [while] we’ve already done this, we will [continue] to do that in a major way in the next term to ensure that the NIS pension can also be increased periodically.
“The Government is a contributor to the NIS… The Government doesn’t own the NIS, but we will have to ensure that the NIS not only remains solvent, but can have major injections from the treasury, from the Government, so that they can meet their obligations to their contributors which are most of the working people of the country.”