My own experience with the NIS has not been exemplary

Dear Editor,

I have noted over the years that your publication has been a conduit through which readers may share their frustrations with the NIS as they seek to claim their pension. I am, of late, heartened to see occasional timely responses the NIS, through its Public Relations Office, has provided. I dare say that the other echelons at NIS should follow that office’s lead. Indeed, as I ponder the sharing of my own ordeal with the NIS in this medium, I am reminded of two references your paper cited, from the Minister of Finance in his budget address, in your online editions of January 27-28, 2022.  He pointed out that “We remain committed to ensuring that those who have served our country over the years and are now advanced in their years are able to enjoy a dignified existence.”  More importantly, he also stressed that “The National Insurance Scheme is an extremely important national institution which has served Guyana well, but which is in need of serious reform, both from the administrative and policy standpoints. Administratively, the Scheme has a longstanding reputation for administrative inefficiency and is a major source of frustration to its contributors and pensioners alike,” he said during Wednesday’s budget speech.”  This is but a poignant summary of things that need to be done to improve the service provided.

Alas, these comforting words are not the reality of my own experience with the NIS and I cannot but conclude that these directives, though well intentioned, have fallen on deaf ears and that the NIS is comfortable in its role of providing negative customer service and bureaucratic stumbling blocks to those who are now due and want to rely on a pension as the end of their days approaches as mine certainly are. My own experience with the NIS has not been exemplary ever since it began in September 2019 with my application for old age pension. It then took two years and several direct and indirect queries before someone there acted on my application. A decision eventually came which, in retrospect, seemed hurried in response, deliberate in oversight, and intentional by design, sans any explanation in the form of one paltry “lump sum” payment. I subsequently was informed by friendly third parties that that payment meant I did not have enough credits for a full pension.

My working life in Guyana began in September 1974 and was continuous until May 1995. My own calculation, according to the very NIS guidelines, tells me that I have accrued approximately 1,056 credits when the minimum required for a full pension is 750. Documentation confirming the said start and end times of my working life was shared with the NIS on more than one occasion. This decision is now leading me to jump through hoops to contest an erroneous summation of the facts of my application that should not have been made in the first instance. A check dated July 15, 2021, came with no accompanying explanation as to the how and the why, and was not received until September 3, 2021, at an address in Georgetown, I might add. I responded on October 11, 2021, as acknowledged by the NIS, and within the 2 months stated for an appeal to be made.  The NIS, in the first instance, simply erred in their determination of the number of credits for a full pension and I am now left holding the bag.  Further inquiries resulted in yet another request to explain the late “appeal”. I responded to this additional bureaucratic hurdle on July 28, 2022, and am yet to receive a response.

Now, I am dealing with the office of the Appeal Clerk which seems to have no idea of the importance of time to and for those who must deal with the NIS now that their lifespan is on a downward curve. My last (electronic) missive directed to the NIS urging a response was on March 15, 2023.  Receipt of this was only acknowledged on my insistence. At this juncture, my patience is wearing thin, and, in that letter, I pointed out that there were two issues facing the NIS – deny or approve my application.  If there is a denial, I asked for a definitive response with the requisite reasons for said decision. In summarizing my experience with NIS over the past 4 years, I can only conclude that despite the Honorable Minister’s desires, customer service at the NIS is halfhearted if not nonexistent and the mission, vision and values statement of that organization, if there are, indeed, any, are but window dressing as they are not adhered to nor carried out.

Sincerely,

R. N. Mungol