By Tanya Smith-Cartwright

tsmithcartwright@tribunemedia.net

THE Director of the National Insurance Board, Dr Nicola Virgil-Rolle, announced on Friday that NIB has about $1.7bn in its reserves to satisfy claims.

Dr Virgil-Rolle, speaking on the Darold Miller Live show, said the government has given $10m to NIB for unemployment assistance to self-employed people from the tourism sector who are without work due to COVID-19.

“We are looking at a total allocation of between $6m and $10m,” she said. “We know that we have about 3,000 self-employed persons in the tourism sector. This includes your hair braiders, your straw vendors, conch vendors, persons who sell towels and t-shirts and things like that on the beaches, jet-ski operators. All self-employed people from the tourist sector will be covered.

“When we look at the Inland Revenue statistics, there were about 3,000 or so persons who are sole operators – self-employed. They are not entrepreneurs in the tourism sector who employ people. There is another provision for those people. So for the self-employed people of the tourism sector we are providing them, through the government subsidy, with $200 per week for up to eight weeks that they are unemployed.”

Dr Virgil-Rolle said the $200 a week unemployed assistance will be paid out every two weeks to those who qualify. She said there are assistance programmes on the way for entrepreneurs of the tourism sector at the Small Business Development Centre.

The government is working in collaboration with NIB to bring some form of financial relief to self-employed Bahamians in the tourism sector whose employment has been disrupted by COVID-19.

This form of assistance, although handled by NIB, is not an actual NIB benefit package. It is not an earned entitlement, it does not require the satisfying of NIB contribution conditions and it does not require the involvement of the Department of Labour.

Self-employed Bahamians working directly in the tourism industry who are not employed in any other capacity and without any other streams of income from employment can qualify.

To claim assistance, people must prove that they are self-employed in the tourism sector by presenting at least one supporting document, such as a business licence; letter from hotel allowing you to work from their property; relevant association membership letter; Straw Market permit; business receipts which show purchases related to your business or; any other documentation which can show that you work in the tourism sector as a self-employed person.

Dr Virgil-Rolle said self-employed people do not pay the same rate as regular NIB contributors and are not covered for the regular unemployment benefit programme.

“The Ministry of Finance is the manager of the programme, and NIB is the administrator of the programme so we take our instructions on eligibility from them,” she said. “The self-employed and employed persons pay at different rates. Self-employed persons do not pay for unemployment insurance. They would not be covered generally for the unemployment insurance. They pay at a rate of 8.8 per cent and employed persons pay at a rate of 9.8 per cent. The one per cent difference is the cost of the unemployment benefit.

“I think the issue around self-employment in the normal scheme of things comes from determining when the self-employed person is unemployed. This is an extraordinary event. There is no market for many things so it is very clear that there is no employment. We have created a special website, linked to NIB’s website and you can go right into the form, fill in the fields correctly and press submit. It tells you the documents you need and it comes directly to us. I have challenged my team for us to work expeditiously on this. We have said within ten days to process and I’ve challenged them to beat that expectation,”

Dr Virgil-Rolle said her team at NIB knows that the public is relying on them to get access to funds so they are working quickly on it. She is asking all those who have bank accounts to send that information in as well so that the funds can be sent directly to their bank accounts.