| Presented below in the form of table is the good news that things are still happening in the Federation. Despite the fact that 138 businesses ceased operations, 160 started or restarted, giving a net gain for business registration during the period. Furthermore, note that 681 persons registered with us for the first time, 131 of them as self employed. Could this data be reflecting the changing nature of the economy, transitioning from an agro-based economy to a service based one? Perhaps, but I will leave such conjecture for students who are in pursuit of academic excellence.
The new and existing workers entrusted EC$34.4Million with us; EC$0.54million of that was from self employed. Thanks. This is indeed very welcome relief to our Inspectorate in particular who are charged with such collections. We know that some employers have not always told us the truth, nor the whole truth, so as late as last week we were in the magistrate’s Court with a few people. That is unfortunate, but the fortunate part is that the numbers of delinquents is falling; with a few die-hard repeat offenders.
Collect and pay. That is what we do. As at June 30th, there were 2,284 pensioners of all types on our long term benefit list. Of this number, 195 became pensioners for the first time – 82 Age pensioners, 37 invalidity/assistance pensioners and 66 survivor pensioners. We were kept busy, settling 6,300 claims. That is over 50 claims each day! Payments made amounted to EC$20.5 Million for the first half of 2010.
The table does not show it, but through prudent management of the funds entrusted to us, we earned EC$34.2Million for you. You may recall that funds are invested in the local banks, loaned to government and to lending institutions such as the Development Bank, FND, NHC, NHLDC, etc ;in shares in local and regional companies, and on the stock market. Housing construction on our flagship project, Beacon Heights Development, is expected to begin soon; and our new building with rental space will be on the market early next year.
The further good news is that this performance compares very favourably with last year’s performance in that despite lower registration of Insured persons, and despite lesser business activity, collections increased by 3.4% over the same period in 2009 ($34.4M vs $33.21M). Meanwhile, benefit payments amounted to 60 cents per contribution dollar, and 30 cents of total income (when we include interest).
This situation is entirely consistent with expectations based on studies of our performance over the years, based on projections (actuarial and otherwise) and based on the experience of other Funds of a similar nature.
Our mission continues to be to provide the best possible benefits to all eligible persons, guaranteed by sound financial management and efficient administration. Indications are that we have kept our promise!
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