The SSB representative also outlined what steps you would have to take at Social Security if you end up sick with the coronavirus and you were one of those employees who recently lost their job. Here’s what she had to say about the safety net for those persons:
Chandra Nisbet-Cansino - General Manager, Corporate & Customer
Relation Services, Social Security Board
“So the Prime Minister of Belize signed a statutory instrument number
43 of 2020 on Friday and what statutory instrument does is gives us the
legal authority to waive the criteria of being an employed person.
We’re paying sickness benefits should you be diagnosed with COVID-19
and so, if you’re not aware, to qualify for any short term benefit at
social security, one of the requirements is that you are uninsurable
employment, which means that to qualify for short term benefit for
social security, you have to be employed at the time of the claim.
However, we realised that a large amount of person were being
terminated and dismissed, there are some that are being asked to wait
until after the crisis is over, furlough is the word they use in the US
and these person were becoming very anxious because they’re thinking
well, we are not employed and if we get sick with this disease how are
going to be taken care of and it was in that spirit that the
legislation was posed to allow the payment of sickness benefits for
recently unemployed persons should they be diagnosed with COVID-19. So
those person who were recently terminated, I think the date is about
March 15 or March 1st, I need to verify, then you will qualify for
sickness benefit even though you are unemployed, it’s diagnosis
specific COVID-19. So it’s one less thing for persons that are
unemployed to worry about because there are a lot of things to be
concerned about so we just wanted them to be reassured that is
something that the Prime Minister has already signed into law.â€
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