Today will be the last time National Insurance Board payment recipients residing in T&T— particularly 80,000 senior citizens— will have to present their Proof Of Life (POL ) certificates, following termination of the POL system, Communication Minister Vasant Bharath confirmed yesterday
At yesterday’s post-Cabinet media briefing, Bharath announced that the practice of presenting Proof of Life certificates twice a year will be replaced by an automated system. This will save NIB $2.8 million, he noted.
Today is the deadline for presentation of POL certificates for the first of the bi-annual checks.
Only T&T nationals who live overseas and are non-resident will continue to have to present POL certificates bi-annually, Bharath said.
But NIB recipients, particularly the 80,000 senior citizens living in T&T — both national and non-nationals — will no longer have to do so.
Noting the various categories of NIB recipients, Bharath said the POL system was established in 1991 when NIB began forwarding payments to financial institutions, such as banks.
He said it was used to prevent risk of overpayments and ensure recipients were alive.
The growth in recipients to the current figure of 133,000, however, resulted in long lines and inconvenience to customers, particularly seniors when the POL cycle had to be undertaken twice a year.
“With this, 80,000 senior citizens were required to visit service centres twice a year and that has been of grave concern to our Government,” he added.
When the POL cycle for 2015 ends today, it will be replaced by the automated process, involving the Legal Affairs and Social Development Ministries, which will liaise with the NIB on data regarding deaths.
The data-sharing system will ensure that NIB accesses information on deaths that arise and will determine when NIB payments have to be discontinued.
The PIN number of a person’s T&T birth certificate will be used as the unique identification mechanism for each recipient.
“This (system) will present vast relief for the 80,000 senior citizens who have to go to offices twice a year to prove they are still alive,” Bharath said.
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