In his contribution to the mid year budget debate in the House of Assembly, Minister of State with responsibility for National Insurance, the Hon. Myles Laroda addressed the proposed rise in the rate of contribution.

He said, “there are going to be decisions that is going to be made moving forward and I could say to the House that the government has made a decision with regards to the National Insurance Board and increases that was put forward by the executive team and the National Insurance Board of Directors chaired by Mr. Philip ‘Fish’ McKenzie.”

Laroda went further revealing statistics that bolster the need for action, “the average number of children pf each woman of child bearing age has declined. While historically there has been at least two children that has now declined to less than 1.7. Statistics show that in 2001 there were 4.8 persons in the workforce for every pensioner, as we look forward to 2078, there’s going to be an estimated decline of 1.4 persons per contributor. And so yet again, if immediate attention is not paid to this fact, those of us who are around at that time to collect dooms day may come a lot quicker than that.”