By NEIL HARTNELL

Tribune Business Editor

nhartnell@tribunemedia.net

A Cabinet minister yesterday said he will “not be surprised” if the National Insurance Board (NIB) ends up paying out $100m in benefits to Bahamians as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic.

Brensil Rolle, minister of the public service and national insurance, told the House of Assembly that the income support being provided by the social security system from its own resources was likely to increase significantly beyond the $78m already paid-out to some 36,000 claimants.

He explained that NIB had originally budgeted to pay-out just $60m in various benefits during the whole of 2020 when COVID-19 hit, and issuing $78m in just three months will “have a great impact” on its $1.7bn reserve fund.

Issuing a warning against benefits fraud, Mr Rolle said himself and NIB had been disturbed to learn that some employers had sent workers home with work to do but were using the social security system to pay them instead of providing their normal salary.

While he did not identify any companies allegedly involved in this practice, the minister also confirmed that an extra 5,000 persons will be eligible for enrollment in the Government’s unemployment extension initiative after the start date was rolled back ten days to March 13, 2020.

“What we did not anticipate was the amount of lay-offs that occurred before the shut down,” Mr Rolle told the House. This was reiterated by NIB, which said in a statement: “The National Insurance Board, after consultation with the Ministry of Finance, is pleased to advise that the Government Unemployment Extension Programme will be extended to persons whose last day at work was Friday, 13 March.

“Our previous pre-enrolled customers included only those persons who were laid off after the lockdown as at March 23, 2020. Some 28,800 persons were pre-enrolled in the programme, and with this expansion NIB estimates that another 5,000 persons will now become eligible – bringing the total eligible enrollment to just over 33,800 persons.”

With NIB acting as “the social safety net for thousands of ordinary Bahamians”, Mr Rolle acknowledged “some frustration, some complaints” from claimants failing to receive what they believed was due to them, or not getting benefits in a timely manner or at all.

Promising that approved claimants would receive the 13 weeks’ benefit payments due to them if they remained unemployed that long, the minister said his own inquiries had revealed some complaints lacked merit.

After investigating one complainant, who had indicated they had not received anything, Mr Rolle said he was “totally surprised” to find they had already been given 10 weeks’ worth of payments and that cheques for the final three were being processed by NIB.

“Listening to the person, I got the impression NIB had done absolutely nothing for them,” he added. Upon challenging the individual, the minister said they merely complained they were not getting their benefits fast enough.