Minister of State in the Prime Minister’s office Senator Alvin Bernard said government has agreed to small incremental increases in social security contributions over a three-year period and to increase the retirement age to 65 years.
He told a seminar on healthy aging at the Goodwill parish hall Friday morning that the viability of the social security scheme could be threatened if appropriate action is not taken.
He says this could have implications for retirees.
“One of the key institutions established by government is the Dominica Social Security. This institution pays a regularly non-taxable income to retire persons who contribute to the scheme during their working life. I must tell you that the viability of the scheme could be threatened if appropriate action is not taken. Projections into the future indicate that while the number of retired persons to the scheme is increasing, the number of active contributors is decreasing. To correct this undesirable situation, which could have implications for the retired elderly, government has agreed to small incremental increases to contributions over a three-year period, as well as to increasing the retirement age to 65 years,” he said.
He says the issues of providing adequate health care for an aging population will be challenging and costly.
“It will require adequate health care capacity and will compete with other challenges such as accessible transportation and housing for the aging population,” he added.
I am British/Jamaican 62 years old. I want to work in Jamaica but cannot (60 finished) I can work in the UK where there is no longer a compulsary age.
It is great to have the choice.
Anyone want a physics teacher in Dominica?
all our people are running, the population is decreasing,the life expectancy is dropping,bad deals are going on, the governments and the workers are making poor investments choices, and then they are running back for more and they will not even give a man a good days pay, yes papa bleed the fools………..
I hope too that social security staff not getting dinner at fort young hotel nor gift from emerald emporium on the account of the public. what are the unions saying about that not a word
Cover it how you want but this increase is due to the mismanagement and poor investments made by Social Security. So many people die before 60 these days and yet now you raise it to 65 when most people die in their mid 70s. I say Make social security OPTIONAL and see the difference because they take people money, invest it and lose it and now want people to cover their losses for them so they can sit pretty.
Why must you display your ignorance so publicly. These are the facts. Most countries are embarked on raising the retirement age to 65 because of the burden caused by retirees living much much longer. So go do some research prior to posting your crap. The strides in medicine both in early detection and treatment means that a lot of people who would have been dead by now are having their lifespan lengthened by 10 to 15 years. Just look at AIDS so many people are alive who would not have been alive 20 years ago
This is supposed to save SS some funds, but if they sign on to the EU’s gay-rights-for-money bill that Vince trying his best to make this gov’t do, then that will WIPE OUT whatever savings this would generate. (not that we bother gays here but tell that to Vince and his anything-for-the-money boys).
THE IDIOTS MAKING NOISE WHAT IS THE RETIREMENT AGE IN THE US….65….CANADA ….YOU CAN WORK TLLL YOU ARE 70 UK…67
i will be sixty in March when i was expecting to get my retirement benefits. just now they telling me that i have to wait another five years. i have already stoped working how do i do it for the next five years.
Impossible, Arrogant people – they did not even THINK to say retirement at 65 if a person wants – STUPES… come again.
to annoymous
i know about investment and savings
the social security i paying every month for over 20yrs is investment and saving. Is my hard earned money they take from every month even before it reach my hand so i should be able to get it the minute i retire.
No one minds a slight increase spread over years. It is Idiotic to raise the age to 65yrs. 60 is already an older person struggling to go to work.
Why not just raise it to 70 while you are at it?
Using your argument, raising it to 70 or 72 would probably fix it far into the future.
What you just did is retrogression as jobs are not being created, space needs to be created for younger workers to contribute to SS, less stress on the elder workers – a win-win for Social security.
Any plans to improve emergency services, such as simplifying the call number(s)? Calls for medics will deffinitely increase due to these older workers’ stressful health on the job. You cannot do one without improving the other.
You are just reacting to emotion on this one pal.
i totaly agree. may I add that in Dominica s culture, older persons are looked down on and the minute you are passed fifty, people think you must go home and roll your rosary. so to come and increase to age sixty five is just adding insult to injury. personally i do not know how i am going to cope with this and i am only fifty.
Increase it to 80 or 90 while you are at it – don’t stop at 65. What the heck – even 100 will do it. IDIOTS!!! People need to enjoy their money while they can.
It needs to be noted that Keeping it at 60 would in-effect create already scarce employment for youth to pay long term into the fund instead of immigrating to another land.
and therefore alvin,what is the
government doing to increase the amount of contributions to the scheme? ie what is the government doing to address the unemployment situation on island? You see alvin, you took on mr Prevost when he talked about growing the economy and provding jobs but you did not provide an answer. Alvin we borrow millions of dollars from china, an ideal opportunity to get our people to work but you failed to help increase the amount of contributions coming into the SS because Dominicans are not employed on the projects which these millions of dollars is funding. So therefore suggest to you my friend, that you come to the publick next week and tell us how you propose to fix that situation.
NO stay out. Make way for the youth. The rate of unemployment is so high amongst the youth, why raise the retirement age when they should be making way for the younger folks.
The number of retired persons to the scheme cannot be increasing because this makes it sound like a case where older folks are being employed in larger numbers and are retiring shortly after. The fact is these are people who have been in the system for many years now and are now completeing their years of service to the state and this should have ben expected if the powers that be were paying a watchful eye to the same and had planned for it. The fact that less people are contributing to the scheme is obvious for two reasons (1) Increase in unemployment and (2) Mass migration (brain drain) caused by a depressed local economy. The fact is there is a serious shortage of opportunity and this is affecting the social security scheme and by extension people who have been planning their retirement. Increasing the contributions will only help in the short term but if the powers that be don’t address the economic situation, then the situation will be perpetuated with time
The number of retired persons to the scheme cannot be increasing because this makes it sound like a case where older folks are being employed in larger numbers and are retiring shortly after
Dosent the government know that teachers cant continue to do the same kind of work after age 60 imagine u start teaching at 20 and teach for 40 years now you have to stay on for another 5 my god what will happen to the bulk of students leaving college how will the teachers cope knowing what is going on the classroom these days
unbelievable. wonder what the teacher s association has to say on that. i m a teacher and i cannot see myself going up to age 60 far more for 65.
My retirement plans has been F**ked up. Seriously DSS. For real Alvin and you all set of incompetent authorities. Is poor me and you who have to pay for the mis-management of DSS and its BIG financial losses from investments in CLICO and British American Insurance cos.
How much dividends DSS expect to make from investment in MARPIN 2K4? Worse yet, Govt. borrows $27,000,000.00 from China and awards the contract to build a State Palace to Chinese workers creating work for the Chinese, while Dominican nationals remain unemployed. What is worse, Chinese workers do not pay DSS any part of their earnings, whatever that is? What backwardness.
There is still no guarantee that the situation wull change and people will be more confident in the future about their retirement benefits. The main problem is that the country’s unemployment rate is rising, the productive sectors are dead, the country and its people are not making money, therefore as a result of the dismal economic situation, DSS’s revenue-collection base is dwindling.
The ordinary Dominican has NO POWER to tell DSS anything about retirement at 60 or 65, or whether to increase their contributions or not. Whatevever wrongs are done or problems arise, it is the people who bear the brunt. DSS have found itself in serious financial difficulties that could destroy the sustainability of the scheme.
But frankly, that is not good news for DSS and future retirees whose plans now have to change considerably.
So what about people like me who just a few years ago opted for retirement at 60? Is that null and void now? Do I now have to retire at 65? Because if i do retire at 60 i wont gt any social security until i am 65. How will i survive those 5yrs. Imagine i have to continue to teach after for 25more years. Lord i am already so tired because children these days are not easy. I can hardly handle them at 40 is not when i am old and tired at 60-65 I will be able to handle them. This also has repercussions for the youth. longer i remain in the job the less opportunity it has for the younger generation. What a mess
As a teacher did you not read about savings and investments? Why you never suggested a 401K to Patrick John and Mamo?
Well Annonymous…Maybe the person did suggest that but they never paid him or her any mind. Remember these are all politicians making decisions with far-reaching implications for us all while they have broblems tying their own shoe laces – lest thinking outside the box as they all should.
401k? seriously?? oh you must be one of those in the diaspoorer(pun intended)