Minister in the Ministry of Finance, Ryan Straughn.
AS of Monday this week, some 48,222 unemployment claims were submitted
to the National Insurance Department over the course of the last three
months.
That’s according to the Minister in the Ministry of Finance, Ryan
Straughn. He made the comments while wrapping up the debate on the
Barbados Optional Savings Scheme Bill in the House of Assembly on
Tuesday night. Straughn’s comments came as he stated that the NIS had
already paid out close to $50 million as a result of those claims,
close to what the Fund would pay out within the period of a year.
“Under normal circumstances with the economy as it was up until the
end of 2019, the Unemployment Fund would normally, in a normal year,
take in about $52 million in contributions, which means that private
sector employees, Sir, of which these 48,000 claims are a part, on a
monthly basis would make contributions to the Fund. And under normal
circumstances with the ebb and flow of unemployment, the Fund would
take in about $52 million a year and pay out 36 to 38 million dollars
a year, depending on how things go. So the Fund would always be in a
slight surplus,” he stated.
He added, “If those 48,000 claims, which are private sector persons,
are not contributing to the Unemployment Fund, Sir, the Government of
Barbados, the State, has a fiduciary responsibility ... to ensure
those persons receive their unemployment benefits. At the end of the
day, the State, the people of Barbados have to honour the rights of
those persons who have now found themselves unemployed through no
fault of their own. Therefore, when we look at how Government will
respond, Sir, to this, the BOSS programme is just one element of the
response.”
He made the point while stating that every public servant no doubt
knows someone who has been laid off as a result of the COVID-19
pandemic and he said the country as a whole has a duty to ensure that
a safety net is provided for them.
“So when the Honourable Member for St. Michael West gets in here to
say we are presenting a salary cut to public servants, it is nothing
further from the truth. Because in reality, Sir, and let’s make it
clear, public servants are paid when private sector activity takes
place – taxes are paid into the coffers and then public servants are
paid.”
Minister Straughn continued, “We hope that through what we are doing,
Sir, knowing that with travel suspended and tourism not likely to come
back in the normal work within the next three to six months, that we
have to find a mechanism, Sir, where we put as many of those persons
back to work as possible. And therefore the BOSS programme has to be
seen as part of how this entire country responds to our citizens.”
With that in mind, he maintained that contrary to what some persons
purport, the Central Bank is not printing money. Minister Straughn
said that the printing of money is “an absolute last resort”.
“If the Government of Barbados wanted the Central Bank to print money,
we would have come here and we would have made the amendment in this
Parliament as we said then that we would do, to let the entire world,
Sir, not just those in Barbados, know what we are doing and for what
length of time we would be doing it. But we have not yet gotten there,
Sir,” he maintained.
He said there is no need for the Central Bank to print money, with the
foreign exchange reserves in a far better position than it was when
they took office in 2018. According to Straughn, the reserves now
stand at $1.993 billion, just $7 million shy of $2 billion. (JRT)