By Lavern Clarke, Staff ReporterAS PART of measures being introduced to bring greater efficiency to the pension system, the Ministry of Labour and Social Security will be encouraging beneficiaries to apply for their pensions a year or two before they retire.
The Ministry's Permanent Secretary, Alvin McIntosh, said it takes just about that time to run the checks and amass the employment records required to approve a pensioner.
The Ministry collects the records to verify that the employee had made National Insurance Service (NIS) contributions as mandated by law and that these in turn were paid over to Government.
In addition, the Ministry also has to verify that the applicant meets the age criteria - 60 for women and 65 for men. Mr. McIntosh added that this has emerged as an issue in the past as persons have been found to lie about their ages to secure employment.
The Ministry is now computerising its pensions records which date back to 1966. However, while this was having "a positive impact", the delays remain, with Public Accounts Committee (PAC) members insisting yesterday that it was unacceptable for approvals to stretch from two to four years, given the needs of the elderly and the infirm.
"We admit the process is not as timely as we would like," McIntosh said, in his appearance before the PAC to answer to weaknesses in the Ministry's financial accounting system.
There are now about 85,000 pensioners on the roll.
Mr. McIntosh said the Ministry would be publishing the names of persons soon to become eligible to solicit their early application, in order to buy the state social security agency the lead time required to process the records so that payments could start at retirement.
Under the present system, the beneficiary usually applies at or after retirement. Under the proposed system, women could apply for their pensions at about age 58 and men at 63.
The PAC commended the initiative as a good move, with chairman Audley Shaw also urging that correspondence be sent directly to individuals as a back-up to the published names.
