Business owners in St. Vincent and the Grenadines, stand to benefit from the Government’s proposed recommendations for NIS reform.
This as the Government plans to extend social security coverage for self-employed participation.
In his 2024 Budget presentation, Minister of Finance, Camillo Gonsalves said, “Extending coverage to the self-employed and informal sector workers is critical to ensure the dignity of life for those workers in their golden years. The COVID-19 experience demonstrated the high degree of financial vulnerability of those categories of workers to loss of employment income. As such, the NIS must provide a more secure and dependable safety net for all workers, irrespective of employment.”
To improve coverage the Government will:
- Allow self-employed persons to qualify for Employment Injury Benefits
- Implement a new approach for self-employed and informal sector workers to pay contributions to the NIS easily.
Currently, there are only 1,436 active self-employed persons on the NIS rolls, and there has been a severe underrepresentation of the number of self-employed persons in Saint Vincent and the Grenadines.
According to the draft 12th Actuarial Valuation Report, the above combination of reform measures would, in the short term, improve the financing and reduce the Fund’s long-term costs. The proposed reforms would significantly improve the long-term viability and sustainability of the Fund.
