Con­sul­ta­tions con­cern­ing the pro­posed in­crease in the com­pul­so­ry age of re­tire­ment from 60 to 65 years con­tin­ued this week as Min­is­ter in the Min­istry of Fi­nance Bri­an Man­ning met with two Cham­bers about the plan.

Rep­re­sen­ta­tives of the T&T Cham­ber of In­dus­try and Com­merce (TTCIC) and the Greater San Fer­nan­do Area Cham­ber of Com­merce (GS­FCC) were guests of the min­is­ter at his Port-of-Spain of­fice.

In a re­lease, the min­istry said the cham­ber rep­re­sen­ta­tives, “held stim­u­lat­ing and am­i­ca­ble dis­cus­sions sur­round­ing the sub­ject mat­ter.”

The re­lease al­so con­firmed that fur­ther con­sul­ta­tions with oth­er stake­hold­ers will con­tin­ue in the near fu­ture.

Man­ning had kicked off dis­cus­sions with stake­hold­ers in Feb­ru­ary when he met with the Na­tion­al Union of Gov­ern­ment and Fed­er­at­ed Work­ers (NUGFW).

The dis­cus­sions fol­lowed a sug­ges­tion by Fi­nance Min­is­ter Colm Im­bert last year that the pen­sion age could be ad­just­ed af­ter it was re­vealed the Na­tion­al In­sur­ance Board of Trinidad and To­ba­go could face long-term fi­nan­cial is­sues based on ac­tu­ar­i­al pro­jec­tions.

The min­is­ter said that based on the trends it ap­peared the ex­pen­di­ture of the NIS was ex­ceed­ing its in­come while pro­jec­tions stat­ed the as­sets of the Na­tion­al In­sur­ance Fund could be de­plet­ed with­in the next 25 years.