Pensionable age in Dominica now settled at 65, according to DSS

The pensionable age in Dominica has now been settled at 65.

“As of January of 2021 the pensionable age has now been established, now settled at age 65,” Deputy Director of the Dominica Social Security (DSS), Augustus Etienne, said in on DBS Radio’s Talking Point on Thursday. “We were moving towards 65 from 2012, moving up by 6 months every year.”

He continued, “What that means for someone who has contributed to social security to receive a full pension in 2021 the person would need to be 65 years of age.”

Etienne said that for the first 6 months of this year nobody will be qualified, “because if you qualify at 65, with the first 6 months of this year, it means that you would be 64 and a half sometime last year…but from July of this year persons will begin qualifying at 65 to receive their full pensions,” ”

He explained that now that the pensionable age has settled at 65, if a person was to take their pension as soon as they turn 60 that individual will be taking their pension 5 years earlier than it is due to them.

“And therefore they will be losing 60 months by 30 percent of what their pension would otherwise have been,” Etienne pointed out. “That is a reduction they would have to live with for the remainder of their lives.”

The DSS Deputy Director also mentioned another change at the Dominica Social Security which involves a quarter percent interest in the contribution rate by all categories of contributors.

“The employees are paying this year 6.25 percent of their earnings,” Etienne noted. “The employers pay the same rate that they paid last year, 7 percent for those who are not paying to redundancy and 7.25 percent for those paying to redundancy.”

He said self employed persons are also paying a quarter percent higher than they did last year.

“The rate is now 12.5 percent and the third category of contributors, voluntary contributors are also paying the quarter percent interest, 11.15 percent of their earnings,” Etienne stated.

Copyright 2012 Dominica News Online, DURAVISION INC. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or distributed.

Disclaimer: The comments posted do not necessarily reflect the views of DominicaNewsOnline.com and its parent company or any individual staff member. All comments are posted subject to approval by DominicaNewsOnline.com. We never censor based on political or ideological points of view, but we do try to maintain a sensible balance between free speech and responsible moderating.

We will delete comments that:

  • contain any material which violates or infringes the rights of any person, are defamatory or harassing or are purely ad hominem attacks
  • a reasonable person would consider abusive or profane
  • contain material which violates or encourages others to violate any applicable law
  • promote prejudice or prejudicial hatred of any kind
  • refer to people arrested or charged with a crime as though they had been found guilty
  • contain links to "chain letters", pornographic or obscene movies or graphic images
  • are off-topic and/or excessively long

See our full comment/user policy/agreement.

6 Comments

  1. Annon
    January 27, 2021

    DSS has no choice but to brainstorm, employ think tanks, to come up with ways of raising funds. That is very important!
    Your paying population is very small, even I can manage that as a side job. The average lifespan of men is 70, you do the math.

  2. Love Da
    January 25, 2021

    You people mad, evey 2 years the pension increases. So that means not much people will be alive to enjoy what they worked so hard to achieve. People should come together and take the DSS to court. I getting to dislike that country, its time for the people to rise up.

  3. Unknown
    January 23, 2021

    Dem man der, wicked dem wicked dem wicked. That’s a work till you die mentality, you’ll retire and collect for couple years then die.

  4. Redz
    January 22, 2021

    This is serious crime against humanity. This is a con plan.

    DSS should have through out the years devised a better plan to ensure that people more are there for them when they are ready for it.

    The life expectancy reduces every 5 years. People are becoming more likely to die between 50 to 60 and you have the audacity to be increasingly the pensionable table.

    This is rather a shame. I’m not an economist but people need to start looking for other option in terms of securing there retirement.

    Additionally, employees pay thousands to DSS for immigrants who font ever stay on Island to benefit. These people contribute monthly for years and leave the island without a package

    The minimum wage has not been increased for decades. The standards of living has not improved and there is an increasing flow of factors that militate against a healthy lifestyle and longevity.

    However, the number of contributors to the plan has significantly increased over the years

    This is…

  5. Ibo France
    January 22, 2021

    Everything this Skerrit led government does usually is to exacerbate the already brutal hardship of the working and unemployed poor Dominican.

    In these financially devastating times, life expectancy in Dominica has been severely curtailed. On attaining 65 years of age, how much longer would the average pensioner live to enjoy his retirement?

    The chickens have come home to roost. This is a clear indication that the country is in dire financial straits. Ominous, dark, storm clouds are on the horizon with Dominica in the crosshairs.

  6. BMB
    January 22, 2021

    So what happens to the employees that are sent home at 60? How do they survive until 65?

Post a Comment

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

:) :-D :wink: :( 8-O :lol: :-| :cry: 8) :-? :-P :-x :?: :oops: :twisted: :mrgreen: more »

 characters available