After collecting a mere $28.9 million in 2014 while paying out a whopping $63.4 million, plus another $4.2 million in administrative costs, the Barbados Unemployment Fund is in serious trouble.
So concerned is the Freundel Stuart Cabinet that the National Insurance Department is recording a $2.5 million deficit each month with this fund, that at its last meeting before the Christmas break on December 18, it directed the Ministry of Finance to “provide an urgent cash injection to the Unemployment Fund, based on forecast deficit projections of $12.5 million”.
With the agreement of the employers’ umbrella body, the Barbados Employers Confederation (BEC), it has also decided to change the law to permit their 0.50 per cent contribution to the Severance Payment Fund . . .
Please read the full story in today’s Daily Nation, or in the eNATION edition.
