The Na­tion­al In­sur­ance Board of Trinidad and To­ba­go has alert­ed em­ploy­ers and work­ers that Na­tion­al In­sur­ance con­tri­bu­tions will in­crease from 13.2% to 16.2%, from Jan­u­ary 5, 2026.

The ad­just­ment fol­lows the pas­sage of the 2025 Fi­nance Bill and ap­plies across the Na­tion­al In­sur­ance Sys­tem.

The NIB said the in­crease is in­tend­ed to ad­dress the grow­ing num­ber of ben­e­fit re­cip­i­ents along­side a de­clin­ing pool of con­trib­u­tors, a trend it said threat­ens the long-term sus­tain­abil­i­ty of the sys­tem if left unchecked.

Ac­cord­ing to the Board, the high­er rate forms part of wider mea­sures to pro­tect in­sured per­sons and en­sure the NIS can con­tin­ue meet­ing its oblig­a­tions in the years ahead.

The NIB said it is al­so con­tin­u­ing work to mod­ernise op­er­a­tions, im­prove ser­vice de­liv­ery and strength­en com­pli­ance, along­side the re­vised con­tri­bu­tion struc­ture.

A con­tri­bu­tion rate ta­ble re­flect­ing the new 16.2 per cent rate has been pub­lished on the NIB’s cor­po­rate web­site to as­sist em­ploy­ers and em­ploy­ees in prepar­ing for the change.

Dur­ing the Bud­get, Fi­nance Min­is­ter Dav­en­dranath Tan­coo an­nounced a phased six per cent in­crease in con­tri­bu­tions, with three per cent tak­ing ef­fect in Jan­u­ary 2026 and a fur­ther three per cent in Jan­u­ary 2027. He al­so an­nounced that the re­tire­ment age for re­ceiv­ing a full NIS pen­sion will grad­u­al­ly rise from 60 to 65 start­ing in Jan­u­ary 2028.

Based on NIB fig­ures, the 2026 ad­just­ment rep­re­sents an in­crease of about 22 to 23 per cent in what em­ploy­ees pay, with em­ploy­ers con­tin­u­ing to con­tribute twice the em­ploy­ee share. By 2027, an em­ploy­ee earn­ing the cur­rent min­i­mum wage could pay an ad­di­tion­al $73.23 month­ly, while high­er earn­ers could see in­creas­es of up to $271.70.