Ah, my young and fabulous friends, it is wonderful that you can enjoy those expensive fashions and parties now, but, even as I write, the stress on our National Insurance Scheme (NIS) is increasin.
Barbadians and other Caribbean nationals could face having to pay higher pension contributions and receive reduced pension if drastic reforms are not urgently implemented to the region’s national security schemes to solve the issue of an ageing population and lower birth rates.This was one of the observations coming out of the Caribbean Economic Forum on Thursday evening, hosted by the Central Bank of Barbados on the topic “Solving the Ageing Population Crisis in the Caribbean”.Derek Osborne, Partner and Senior Actuary at LifeWorks in the Bahamas, said while some countries such as Barbados and St Lucia have already taken steps to reform their pension schemes, the region was already generally facing a pension scheme crisis.
The suggestion from a Bahamian actuary that the solution to our social security and pension woes was for our citizens to spend longer years in the workforce, while at the same time, slashing benefits to retirees was a little too much to stomach.We get it. Our population is ageing, and the number of younger people employed and contributing to the social security system is falling.This combination is not what social security and investment managers want to hear but it is the reality confronting not just us in Barbados but other nations in the Caribbean.The issues are many and the solutions are far from simple.The Central Bank of Barbados must be commended for keeping this topic on the front burner and highlighting the interconnectedness of employment, GDP growth, the population and the health status of the island’s population.In its July edition of the Caribbean Economic Forum titled: Solving the Ageing Population Crisis in the Caribbean, we heard suggestions from an eminently qualifie