Tourism Minister, Edmund Bartlett, says the Tourism Workers’ Pension Scheme will allow for flexible contributions through its use of individual retirement savings accounts.
Speaking at a recent JIS ‘Think Tank’, Bartlett explained that each tourism enterprise worker who joins the scheme will have his or her own retirement savings account with their contributions, their employers’ contributions and interest accumulated.
He added that the pension scheme will facilitate breaks in contribution due to periods of unemployment or overseas employment.
“This is contribution based on employment, so if you are not working, you cannot make a contribution. However, it doesn’t change the fact that you have an account with money in it and that you are a member of the pension scheme. So, you pick up after you start working again and you contribute,” said Bartlett.
He explained that being employed to a local multinational company would not cause a break in contributions if the employee is paid from that company’s headquarters in Jamaica.
However, the break would come if the employee is paid from another jurisdiction.
The Tourism Workers’ Pension Scheme is expected to come into effect in 2020.
For her part, Chair of the Tourism Workers’ Pension Scheme Oversight Committee, Daisy Coke, underscored the flexibility in making contributions to the scheme and the security of the savings account.
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