Employees whose employers are not making claim to the National Insurance Scheme (NIS) on their behalf for the Unemployment Assistance Benefit (UAB), can now do so for themselves.
The NIS has designed a new platform that allows employees to claim the UAB by visiting any NIS office and filling out the relevant form at the Customer Service Department.
The previous platform only allowed employers to submit claims on behalf of employees. But this posed a challenge as some employers were also in need so they refused to apply for the UAB on behalf of workers.
There were instances where a few employers laid off ‘long standing’ workers and refused to apply on their behalf for the NIS’ $330 monthly payment.
PRO of the NIS explained that application is to be made by persons who are unemployed due to COVID-19 for more than 2 weeks continuously.
Persons remaining unemployed are expected to submit a claim monthly.
As it relates to the payout of the UAB, in July the NIS paid out over $0.9 million and received over 5,700 claims.
The NIS has allocated EC$10 million to the UAB to be paid out over 6 months (May – October).
