NIS Barbados

Government Administration - Bridgetown, Saint Michael, Barbados

NIS Barbados Employees

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NIS Barbados Details

The National Insurance Scheme provides cash benefits in the event of sickness, maternity, invalidity, old age, unemployment, employment injury and death. Medical care and transportation expenses are covered also in the case of employment injury. In addition the National Insurance Office also administers two other schemes - the Severance Payments Scheme and the Sugar Workers' Provident Fund. These two Schemes are governed by their own legislation and have their own Funds and are separate and distinct from the National Insurance Fund. The Severance Payments Fund provides for the payment of compensation to employees who are dismissed by reason of redundancy or natural disaster or who terminate the contract of employment after a period of lay-off or short-time. The Sugar Workers' Provident Fund provides for the payment of retirement pensions to sugar workers as well as funeral grants on the death of pensioners. When Social Insurance was first introduced in Barbados, contributions were paid by means of affixing stamps of the appropriate value to the contribution card of the insured person. The stamp method of collecting contributions was abolished at the end of 1977 and from 1978; it was replaced by the direct method of payment. Under this system, contributions are paid in monetary form to the National Insurance Office.The system of using contribution cards was abolished from January 1987 and was replaced with Contribution Certificates and Earnings schedules. Contributions are payable within fifteen days after the calendar month in which they become due and the Earnings schedules must also be submitted monthly. The limits of insurable earnings are adjusted periodically in order to ensure that the Fund maintains equality between income and expenditure.