Dear Editor,
My name is Rampaul Chetaru and I attained the age of 60 on February 24, 2018, and filed for my old age benefits on January 3, 2018. I appeal to your newspaper to highlight the difficulties I have been enduring for the past 10 month at the hands of the National Insurance Scheme.
On several occasions I made enquiries at the Georgetown local office (pensions section) and at the Melanie Damishana local office as it related to the status of my old age benefits, only to be informed that it is being processed; however, due to some issues with my contributions on the system, payment of my claim is being affected.
On my recent visit to the National Insurance Scheme, I was referred to the Public Relations Unit where I spoke to an officer and even submitted a letter to her which was for the General Manager, appealing to her to intervene to bring closure to my claim. The officer give me all assurance that she will look into the matter to ensure closure, however, when I recently enquired on the status of my old age claim, I was informed that my matter is still pending.
Mr Editor, I have satisfied the contributions amount to be entitled to an old age pension. However, I was informed that there is an issue with my self-employed contributions which is affecting my payment. After I left my job I went and registered with the National Insurance Scheme as a self-employed contributor on the October 1, 2006, and made my payments from the October 2006 to December 2010 and even with the difficulties that I face I was always punctual with my payments so why am I put to suffer because of the cancerous system within the National Insurance Scheme.
I recently read of Ms Sahadai’s matter versus NIS in the media and was thankful the court made the right judgement in her matter and also for Christopher Ram’s endurance that ensure justice was served to his client.
As I conclude, I appeal to the relevant authority to address my concern and bring closure to my matter since I am currently unemployed and have no other means of financial support.
Sincerely,
Rampaul Chetaru
