Dear Editor,
In the early part of 2019, I accompanied my mother to file for her NIS benefits. What was thought to be an easy walk in the park turned out to be some six years of utter frustration to get what she was rightfully entitled to.
To start her processing, she was advised to visit the Camp Street location to get a printout of her contributions, which she had to pay for; and when she received it, her nightmares began. Even though she worked at one place for over ten years, records were missing for a few years in between.
Similarly with two other companies.
My mom insisted that she never stopped working, so she was told to check back as they investigate. After one year of checking back, she was told they were not finding records, and because one of the companies had suffered a major fire, she had to get a letter from a manager to verify that indeed she worked there for all the time she claimed, because the records were destroyed.
After getting all the required documents, she was informed that the process would take some time, and that she would be contacted.
From 2020 to 2024, we had to contact NIS repeatedly for an update, and some of the excuses were: COVID 19; records not being found; they didn’t hear from us, so they dismissed the matter; the offer of a one-off payment, which we refused; and the process had to be restarted.
In the period I stated above, not once did NIS ever made contact with us, and every time we visited, we always got various excuses and were told that the process had to be restarted. Finally, out of utter frustration, she decided to take the one-off payout.
In 2025, I accompanied her to the NIS office at Brickdam, where she received a cheque for $57,000. That’s all she got after working and paying her NIS contributions for over 30 years in Guyana.
If we are to sit down and calculate the expenses, we incurred by running around to get her documents, checking back with NIS, giving staff a ‘top-up’ to buy a drink/lunch to assist us, we’ve spent more than twice the amount she has received.
Editor, I would have given up on that a long time ago, but the insistence of my mother caused me to visit the NIS office at Brickdam and spend hours every time listening to people expressing their frustration and witnessing the anguished cries of people as they expressed dissatisfaction with NIS. Almost everyone has complaints of their records not being found and of the constant back and forth.
Is it worth it to pay your NIS contributions, and when you reach age to collect, you have to spend years running behind them? And when they are ready to pay you, it’s not worth it? They are mostly forcing you to accept what they want to offer you, after frustrating you. And in some cases — not in many cases — the person dies before they can receive any benefit.
It’s a disgusting system we have in Guyana, and no one wants to change it; just keep it in place and use it as a blame game.
Sincerely,
Sahadeo Bates
