BASSETERRE, St.Kitts (Friday 16th October 2020) – Labour Commissioner Shernel James has informed that additional steps have been introduced so as to protect the integrity of processing claims received thus lengthening the time frame in handling such before payments can be made.
“…to protect the integrity of the processing claim, we would have introduced additional steps and that is why it is taking a little bit longer for a number of claims to process. The process is manual and so it takes some time, and the Department of Labour apologises to those persons who would have put in claims since May and have not receive any payment to date but I will like to assure persons that all claims that came in from May to August 31st would have gone through the processing stage.”
James made the disclosure on while appearing on the weekly ‘Leadership Matters’ aired on ZIZ on Tuesday 13th October 2020 while speaking on the topic of social protection in pointing out that the Department of Labour administers under its Social Protection Unit two schemes designed to reduce poverty and the vulnerability of workers namely the Severance Payment Fund and Long Service Gratuity Scheme.
In her presentation, she gave a detailed breakdown of how the claims are being processed at the various stages including being verified by the Ministry of Finance, the Accountant General Department and the government’s Integrated Treasury Management System (ITMS) and calling persons in by appointment to receive the necessary letter.
“As a result of the global pandemic and the closure of our borders, many industries were reduced or forced to close pointing out that some went on reduced hours and reduced pay. Two of the most affected areas included the hotel, restaurant and tourism sector and the manufacturing sector. However, we realized that a number of small businesses were impacted and many of these closed operations,” she commented.
According to James, as of the 12th of October, the total number of claims received at the Department of Labour is 1855 claims and at least 620 have been processed.
She said the department has been “working tirelessly during the weeks on overtime and on weekends and even on public holiday to process these claims in ready for payment.”
“To date, we have processed at least 620 of these claims and these were persons employed in the hotel tourism sector as these were the most affected workers who are still presently out of a job. Government- infused the severance payment fund in an amount of $11.1 million dollars and to date we have paid out roughly 250 claims.”
The Labour Commissioner continued: “We are still going through the process because as we would have realized to ensure that there is clarity and as well as to ensure that these claims meet the requirement, additional steps were added by our Department of Labour based upon recommendation of the Director of Audit , the Accountant General Department and the Ministry of Finance and so it takes a longer time in terms of when a claim would be received at the Department of Labour to the time of payment of these claims. When a claim is submitted to us, we look for when we receive them…completed claim forms.”
We ask for a copy of the claimant social security identification card, letters of termination or letters of lay off and a copy of the claimant’s social security contribution statement.
The processing claim includes documentation of the claim when it is received by the Department of Labour, and this is added to our database. We also look for the case validity of these claims; whether it is a legitimate claim or hoax claim, and we also take the opportunity to prepare a file jacket from this claim. The claim then goes on for investigation. Once it has been investigated using the Social Security contribution statement which means the preparer will have to go through each claim for all the years the worker would have claimed on the file form. Once that has been verified, we then calculate it. After the calculation process, the claim is then verified by one of the verifiers at the Department of Labour, and we have four of them to date
As informed by her, once it has been verified in accordance with the law, the Labour Commissioner who is given authority under the law then approves the claim.
James said the claim then goes on for further verification by the Ministry of Finance and that once it would return, it then goes to the Accountant General Department which is further verified again. After the verification process is completed, the claim goes through the government ITMS system and payment is made by cheque.
As highlighted further, once that cheque has been put through the system, the Department of Labour prepares the necessary documentation where we call persons in by appointment where they’ll receive the necessary letter which would outline the status of their claim, how it was processed, the amount they would receive etc. and then if they have any sort of queries, we would answer same.
James told that the Severance payment fund is going through an actuarial review.
“Some was done in 2018 but the scope has been widened and so, it is going to be looking at the validity of the severance payment fund.”
Meanwhile, workers, employers or concerned persons who have questions regarding their severance payment claim are asked to contact the Labour Department at 467-1100 or 662- 2075.