A cross-sec­tion of the busi­ness com­mu­ni­ty, in­clud­ing the Trinidad and To­ba­go Man­u­fac­tur­ers’ As­so­ci­a­tion (TTMA), Trinidad and To­ba­go As­so­ci­a­tion of Re­tired Per­sons (TTARP) and Ernst and Young, say they agree with Gov­ern­ment’s pro­pos­al to in­crease the re­tire­ment age, but there are al­so rec­om­men­da­tions for the State to turn its at­ten­tion to er­rant busi­ness own­ers who fail to pay na­tion­al in­sur­ance for staff.

Dur­ing his 2024 Bud­get pre­sen­ta­tion on Mon­day, Fi­nance Min­is­ter Colm Im­bert re­vealed that the Gov­ern­ment will be press­ing ahead with its plan to in­crease the re­tire­ment age from the cur­rent 60 years to 65.

Once the pro­pos­al takes ef­fect, em­ploy­ees will have the op­tion to work for five more years be­fore they tap in­to the Na­tion­al In­sur­ance Re­tire­ment Ben­e­fit (NIB). Cur­rent­ly, in­di­vid­u­als who make a min­i­mum of 750 con­tri­bu­tions earn a pay­out of $3,000 per month from the fund. With the pop­u­la­tion liv­ing longer, the fund has re­duced sig­nif­i­cant­ly, and the Gov­ern­ment is at­tempt­ing to close the gap.

Speak­ing at the TTMA’s post-bud­get dis­cus­sion at the Hy­att Re­gency Ho­tel yes­ter­day, pres­i­dent Roger Roach said while the Gov­ern­ment must take steps to en­sure the longevi­ty of the fund, the State should al­so turn its at­ten­tion to busi­ness­es that are fail­ing to pay NIS for staff.

“The net is not wide enough in terms of NIS con­tri­bu­tions like tax col­lec­tions. You have a num­ber of busi­ness­es who are not mak­ing those NIS con­tri­bu­tions on be­half of their em­ploy­ees. They’ve fall­en be­low the radar and if the net is widened and you get con­tri­bu­tions from more busi­ness­es, more in­di­vid­u­als, then that could help to plug the gap,” Roach said.

Im­bert, who al­so spoke at the event, agreed with the sug­ges­tion, as he said the Gov­ern­ment is not get­ting the full al­lo­ca­tion of tax­es from a work­force that teeters around 600,000. He said just 400,000 peo­ple are re­li­gious­ly pay­ing NIS.

“So where are those 200,000 peo­ple? It’s some­thing that we have to deal with,” Im­bert said.

Al­so con­tact­ed, TTARP ex­ec­u­tive mem­ber Reynold Coop­er wel­comed the move but said it should not be a manda­to­ry de­ci­sion. He added that the State should al­so as­sure that young peo­ple do not suf­fer the con­se­quence of this move.

“It should be op­tion­al and not com­pul­so­ry. On the oth­er hand, too, we al­so be­lieve that there should be some way to de­vel­op the econ­o­my, to grow the econ­o­my, so that younger per­sons should be able to find em­ploy­ment. Be­cause what we don’t want hap­pen­ing, is that an el­der­ly per­son is de­priv­ing a younger per­son from do­ing some work,” Coop­er said.

Mean­while, some mem­bers of the pub­lic agreed while oth­ers found the in­crease in the re­tire­ment age a back­ward ini­tia­tive.

Barataria res­i­dent Jan­ice Joseph, 66, who was an as­sis­tant at the Min­istry of Labour, said she would have worked longer if she had the op­tion.

“The five years more is not bad be­cause some­times, right, yuh still in yuh prime, yuh still vi­brant. I wish I was still work­ing but I had to go. They need us to train the younger ones to come up to mark. So, rais­ing the NIS? Eh eh, we mon­ey too small for that,” she said.

How­ev­er, June Ed­wards, 83, dis­agreed with the pro­pos­al. She said peo­ple who have de­vot­ed years to work would like­ly ap­pre­ci­ate the down­time.

“No, I would not like to work. When I reach my 60 I want to leave. It could be a good choice if yuh reach 60 and re­lax your­self at home af­ter get­ting up every morn­ing ear­ly,” she said.

An­nette Alexan­der, 73, who spray-paint­ed ve­hi­cles be­fore she re­tired, shared a sim­i­lar view. She said not every­one would be able-bod­ied at that age.

“From the time you turn 50, you start get­ting ail­ments – sug­ar, pres­sure, heart. So, at that case now, how a per­son with these things could work? Let them give the peo­ple they mon­ey, they na­tion­al in­sur­ance on time and they pen­sion, be­cause this is what they’re breaks­ing from,” she said.