The Tribune

By RASHAD ROLLE

Tribune Staff Reporter

rrolle@tribunemedia.net

THE National Insurance Board has processed 495 unemployment claims related to Hurricane Dorian, according to Brensil Rolle, minister of public service with responsibility for NIB.

In the House of Assembly yesterday, he said NIB and the Department of Labour processed 476 claims from Abaco and 19 from Grand Bahama between September 1 to September 24.

Overall, the departments have received 907 unemployment claims, though a breakdown of how many submitted after October 4 have been processed was not available up to yesterday, he said.

Normally NIB requires in person collection of unemployment cheques to validate that people are in the country.

“Instead, the National Insurance Board is making it possible for unemployment benefits to be directly deposited to accounts upon in person verification at either the NIB office or the island administrator,” Mr Rolle said.

He added that the NIB has also facilitated early pension payments in September, injecting $21m into the Bahamian economy because of the need to maintain commerce and the circulation of money.

“…The board worked tirelessly to ensure that the long-term benefit payments for September 2019 were paid one week earlier on Wednesday, September 11, 2019,” he said.

Mr Rolle also said that to date, NIB has replaced 774 smart cards following Dorian.