Deputy Director of the Dominica Social Security (DSS), Augustus Etienne, announced that the pensionable age for the civil service is now pegged at 65 years. Etienne said the new pensionable age was agreed upon in January, and that the age was increased every six months since 2012 until it reached 65 years in January.
To this end, eligible workers of 65 years old will qualify to begin receiving government pensions from July this year. Based on calculations, Etienne said no one qualified to receive pensions in the first part of this year since that would mean that the individual was 64.5 years in 2020. He stated that people will become eligible for pensions from July, 2021.
The DSS deputy director further stated that in the situation where an individual receives his pension at 60, they would be taking the pension five years earlier than it is due at 30% less the amount that is due.
And therefore they will be losing 60 months by 30 percent of what their pension would otherwise have been. That is a reduction they would have to live with for the remainder of their lives.
Augustus Etienne, Deputy Director of the Dominica Social Security (DSS)
The deputy director also announced that the DSS is implementing a quarter percentage interest on the monetary contributions of public servants. He said employees will pay 6.5% of their compensation while employers will pay the 7% that they paid last year.
The employees are paying this year 6.25% of their earnings. The employers pay the same rate that they paid last year, 7% for those who are not paying to redundancy and 7.25% for those paying to redundancy. The rate is now 12.5% and the third category of contributors and voluntary contributors are also paying the quarter percent interest, 11.15% of their earnings.
Augustus Etienne, Deputy Director of the Dominica Social Security (DSS)
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