BLP manifesto pledge absurd
Mini mani-fiasco. That’s how some members of the ruling Democratic Labour Party (DLP) have described the recently launched manifesto of the Barbados Labour Party (BLP).
Speaking on Saturday night in Gall Hill, St. John during a political meeting in support of the DLP’s candidate for St. John, George Pilgrim, Stephen Lashley, the Party’s candidate for Christ Church West Central, said much of what is contained in that document are merely vote-catching measures and he urged the electorate to be wary of the unrealistic promises being made, referencing specifically the proposal to increase non-contributory pension.
“The people who know how the National Insurance Scheme operates recognise that that naked vote-catching measure was going to bankrupt the National Insurance Scheme and they warned Barbadians that here was an attempt by the Barbados Labour Party, in a mad rush to seek to get people to vote for them and they would stop at nothing,” Lashley stated.
Contending that the BLP had ten years to get right what they wanted to propose to the country, Lashley maintained their attempt is poor and lacking. He made the point while arguing that that Party could not have done careful analysis of the NIS.
Adding to his comments, Minister of Labour and Social Security, the DLP’s candidate for St. George South, Dr. Esther Byer-Suckoo said that she too found the proposal absurd, particularly considering that it was a BLP administration that had instituted and started to reform the pension scheme, gradually increasing the age of retirement in Barbados, to safeguard its longevity. Such reform, she explained, was necessary given that Barbadians are living longer and not having as many children as before.
“Our population isn’t growing very rapidly now; our population growth rate they tell me is about 1.3 per cent – that means we are not having a lot of children. So as the actuaries looked at that, they realised that the only way to ensure that the contributions that are going in and that we can estimate going in would be sufficient for pensioners as they come out, is for us to extend the pension age,” Byer-Suckoo stated.
She went on to say that the fund has billions of dollars in investment and remains very sound at this time. As such, she said anytime a pension cheque has been late has not been due to a lack of money. However, she argued that while right now the scheme has the funds necessary to take it forward, should the BLP implement its plans, the pension scheme will be bled dry, leaving no pension for future Barbadians. This, she explained, is because to increase non-contributory pension they would have to also increase contributory pension; millions of dollars the scheme has not budgeted for.
“Now tell me if the Barbados Labour Party was able to embark on a process of pension reform because they realised there is a need to manage the pensions, how could it possibly make sense to now come and raid the same pensions in one fell swoop? When we do the calculations, what they are proposing for the non-contributory pension is actually going to cost this government and the National Insurance more than $20 million a year,” she noted.
Her remarks came as she maintained that the NIS is the envy of countries across the region and the world, and every effort must be made to safeguard its existence.
“We [DLP] cannot now sit back idly, after creating the National Insurance 51 years ago, working so hard to ensure that over the last 10 years in times of difficulty Barbados was able to be supported by that same National Insurance. The National Insurance provided unemployment benefit during the worst part of this recession. It was that National Insurance that provided for a period; about a year and a half we increased unemployment from 26 weeks to 40 weeks because of how difficult things were … and when things eased off we came back to the 26, again because we have to manage the National Insurance responsibly, we couldn’t do 40 weeks forever,” she maintained.
She warned too that if persons feel that putting money into the scheme is worthless and decide to stop, as those who have not contributed are benefiting more than them, that too could result in the demise of the system. (JRT)