National Insurance Corporation

The St. Lucia National Insurance Corporation (NIC)is responsible for managing the country’s National Insurance System (NIS), or Social Security. The raison d’etre of the NIC is to pay benefits to eligible persons on the basis of contributions that had been paid in the past. The contributions are collected as payroll deductions whereby employees pay a percentage of their earnings, which are matched by an equal amount by the employer. Employees receive cash benefits when they are unable to earn income as a result of illness, maternity, employment injury, invalidity or retirement.

The key functions of the NIC are:

• Policy development for the administration of the NIC Act and Regulations

• Registration of eligible employers and employees.

• Assessment and collection of contributions due from employees.

• Receipt, screening and payment of eligible claims from employees. These payments are in the form of pensions, grants and one-time-payments.

• Compilation of statistics and interpretation of long term financial projections.

• Financial Management.

• Investment of ‘surplus’ funds in real estate and financial instruments.

• Property management

• Providing information to the public

The NIC uses an extensive technology infrastructure to administer its operations. More information on the NIC can be found at www.stlcianis.org.

As at December 2008, the NIC had Total assets of $1.20 B (Net $1.19 B)Revenue at financial year ending June 2007 was $145.6 M ($127.8 M for 2006)