Many ineligible for COVID-19 assistance for not paying SS & NHI- Hon Wheatley
Hon Wheatley made the remark during the Eighth Sitting of the Second Session of the Fourth House of Assembly (HoA) at the Save the Seed Energy Centre in Duff's Bottom, Tortola, on June 8, 2020.
He said: “What we found is that a lot of persons are not up to date which means they are disqualified from getting certain things, and we cannot ignore that reality.”
“I do not believe that persons are not paying these things or businesses because they don’t want to, the reality in the BVI is that we need to do more for businesses to ensure that they are viable and they can pay their overheads,” he added on the issue.
System should flex- Opp Leader
Opposition Leader Honourable Marlon A. Penn (R8) said; however, there were instances where the system needs to bend for those who really require the help.
He said there are persons whose employment were affected by the 2017 hurricanes to this day.
“I know persons who have gotten employment two weeks before the shutdown and are told that they don’t have any support because they don’t meet the eligibility. But, they are affected by COVID-19, so how are we going to support those persons? And it can’t be just through the district funds,” he remarked.
The Opposition Leader stated that there are other instances where employees’ contributions were not paid by their employers and are also being affected.
“These are real concerns, we have to figure out in a streamlined way to ensure that the people who are truly in need of the support, get the support,” he argued.
Background
As part of the Government’s $62.9 million economic stimulus package, Premier and Minister of Finance, Honourable Andrew A. Fahie (R1) said $10 million would go towards unemployment relief support.
At that time, he said it would be for persons who have been either laid off or placed on reduced working hours or days because of the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic affecting the globe.
He had said eligible persons would receive financial support for up to three months, and it would be on a case-by-case basis after persons submitted their supporting documents to the SSB, showing how they were affected by the virus.
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19 Responses to “Many ineligible for COVID-19 assistance for not paying SS & NHI- Hon Wheatley”
Employees are not responsible for the egregious and fraudulent behaviour of employers and should not be penalized for it. These bad, fraudulent actors are doing their employees a disservice, for failure to pay into Social Security and NHI can and will adversely impact social security and medical benefits.
Moreover, government needs to take urgent, strong enforcement actions against delinquent employers, requiring them to pay arrears and make payments on time per the law(s) going forward.
As such, otherwise qualified residents should receive the government assistance. Show some stones and hold the employers accountable and responsible for their bad behaviour, not the employees.
Further, Social Security recipients should not be denied assistance because they are receiving social security benefits. The Covid-19 pandemic caused people to be laid off, furloughed or caused a reduction of work hours so their social security payments that they have earned should not be a metric for their not getting any assistance. This is a special circumstance. Social security granted government a grant so why social security setting the terms and conditions for distribution of the assistance?
the employer should ve held accountable...not bailed out !!
ive said it for years to various ministers of government....make sure each and every business who holds a valid trade license obtains a letter of good standing EACH YEAR at their trade license renewal...without that letter....no trade licence should be issued and the business held accountable to pay and until they are up to date...no trade license.
one other point...can the immigration bond..which is used for work permited staff and posted by the employer...be used to settle any shortfall of the contributions ?????
People are wining the government where they are getting someone just to sponsor them and they here here working doing different of jobs to makes a living without paying there NHI,SS AND TAX just because the person whom sponsor them only sponsored them and they are on there own.
BVI NEED TO GET MORE STRICT WITH THE LAWS REASON TODAY SO MANY CANT GET FUNDS AND WANT PLAY BLAME THE PERSON SPONSORED THEM.