Director of the Dominica Social Security (DSS) Janice Jean-Jacques Thomas has announced that the company paid $58.5 million to pensioners in 2022.
She made the announcement during the ‘Seniors on the Move’ program aired on State-Owned Radio DBS this week.
“While we pay other benefits, our age benefits take up almost 90 percent of the amount we pay,” she said. “For instance, in 2022 we paid $67 million in benefits, and imagine while we have…many benefits that we pay…to pay…persons during their retirement takes almost 90 percent of that amount, so for 2022 we paid $58.5 million to pensioners.”
According to Jean-Jacques Thomas, a person’s pension benefit is a formula that is derived from how long he or she contributed.
“So, the longer you work and contribute to social security the higher the percentage you will get and how much you earn,” she explained. “It starts at a minimum of 30 percent and the percentage is based on your last 15 years of contributions; we take the best 10 years to get an average to calculate how much a person can qualify for.”
Furthermore, Jean Jacques-Thomas explained that within three years a person would get out of social security every dollar that they paid into that company over the years.
“Remember you are paying into social security at a lower rate than what you are receiving as a benefit,” she stated.
