Ever since I came to Social Security, I have been consistently telling you how good the system is. I am thankful to the many persons who have spoken to me and encouraged me to keep on writing, and a little put off when people criticize our Social Security (yours and mine) and then boastfully tell me that they do not read the papers and they do not listen to the radio stations. How they intend to be kept informed is a mystery to me. This week, we present the report on our performance, your performance really, for the first half of 2008. The institution has been doing it all along, just that we want to put a little beef on it this time. Do us a favour therefore - please spread the word.

First, we congratulate the 680 persons who found work, apparently for the first time and welcome you now that have joined the movement. We wish you many years of good and productive service. As we expected, almost a third of you are younger than 25 years – you have a lifetime ahead of you. Use it wisely. We will be there for you when your rainy days come as inevitably they will. Both islands are to be congratulated because both experienced the creation of jobs: 218 to Nevis and 462 to St Kitts.

One hundred and fifty seven businesses opened their doors and another 28 re-started. This is in addition to the 149 of you who have created work for yourself and others. May you continue to prosper, and Social Security encourages all citizens and residents to patronize you to the fullest. Just one thing: give us good service and let your yea be yea. Again, congratulations are in order for both islands because the growth was experienced in both – 59 businesses in Nevis, 45 more self employed, and 15 restarts. Comparable data for St Kitts was 98 new businesses, 104 new self employed and 13 restarts. Meanwhile 37 businesses (17 in Nevis and 20 in St. Kitts) found the going too difficult and closed doors. We are saddened by your departure, but wish you well in your future endeavours.

Our members experienced loss of earnings 6,632 times and claimed support from us as is their right to do. All but approximately 4% were paid. See, we do not like to say no, but sometimes we have to. We find that most of the claims we have had to turn down have not been strictly ‘above board’. I repeat, you will not succeed if you should not succeed. Study the table to see, once again, how many ways we have found to help people. Suppose all insurances were like this one!

Under the heading pensioners-in-payment, I want to draw attention to the fact that 3,464 persons are collecting something monthly. Granted, 355 of them will only receive the payment until they reach the age of majority, because they are yet young. Another set, 346 of them may lose it if they fall in love again and choose not to live in sin. Yet another 532 persons are in receipt of that “welfare” cheque of $210.00 per month and over 70% of them are women. Who says we are unkind to old women? Let us dispel a perception about pensions: not all pensions are payable for life, and not all pensions are old age pensions – in our case, a little less than half (48%) are younger than 62.

From January to June of this year, you have entrusted $34.75 million to us. We have used it wisely! Some of it rests in the Banks at 6.5% interest, some was used to pay staff, some of it was used to pay you back and some was invested in the country’s development. Say what you will, but we insist that money is best used when it is spread around to stimulate the economy. For better than 30 years we have been spreading it around, buttering up this economy to your benefit. Remember 829 additional persons found work in the economy already for the year. No apology for that!

Finally, let’s talk about the payback. I draw to your attention that we pumped $16.62 million back into the pockets of our members. Almost fifty cents of every dollar you paid in was paid back to you. Therefore, if we do the maths, we can argue that we really only took $18.13 million out. Or put another way – if this were a company, paying dividends of 47.82 cents on each dollar share, everybody in the Federation and the world would have been applying for shares. One important statistic that is not shown is that we earned over EC$50million in interest for the half year, all of this interest was rolled over! Your money is hard at work and is truly well managed!

So work with us because we are working for you. Pay up all that you should in the time that you should. We are striving for social justice; we keep looking up for your benefit even as we commit to providing the best possible benefits to all eligible persons guaranteed by sound financial management ands efficient administration. This is our mission. Thanks.