1. For all Long-Term benefits, the appropriate Application form must be completed and submitted along with the Insured person’s Birth Certificate and Social Security Card.
2. A Bank Payment Order form must be completed to indicate at which bank the pension should be lodged.
3. Persons who have worked in other Caricom countries should indicate periods of employment and submit all other Social Security/NIS numbers when submitting claim.
4. Claims being made in respect of Invalidity benefit or Disablement benefit, must be accompanied by a Medical Report certifying the state of incapacity.
5. For claims being made in respect of Survivors benefit, the following must also be presented:
   • Death Certificate
   • The Marriage certificate (where applicable)
   • A notarized statement confirming the union were the relationship was common-law
   • The Birth Certificate of each of the claimants.
6. Claims for Funeral Grant, must be supported by a copy of the Death Certificate and the bills/receipts for the Funeral expenses in the name of the Claimant. If the person who actually met the expenses wishes to have the Grant paid to a different person, a letter to this effect must be written to the Director.

Long-Term benefits are payable by direct deposits into the pensioners’ bank accounts on a fortnightly or monthly basis. The Claimant should indicate on the Bank Payment Order whether he wishes the cheque to be deposited on a fortnightly or monthly basis.

General Information

• When submitting your claim please ensure that you state whether you were employed in any country with which Dominica has a Reciprocal Agreement on Social Security.
• Every pensioner is required to complete a Certificate of Life form every year as proof that he is alive, and in receipt of his pension.
• A person in receipt of Long-term benefit is responsible for informing the DSS office of any change in circumstances affecting his continued rights to such benefit. (For example, a widow or widower in receipt of Survivors benefit is responsible for informing the DSS if she or he remarries or cohabitates).

Please take note that it is an offense to receive benefit for which one is not eligible. Regulations provide that any amount so received MUST be refunded to the Fund.

Please note that with effect from 2012, and consequent upon amendments to the Social Security legislation, the Pensionable Age (i.e. the age at which an Insured Person becomes eligible for an Age Pension from the DSS) will increase incrementally by six (6) months every year – until the year 2021, when the Pensionable Age will be set at Age 65.

Notwithstanding such incremental increase in the Pensionable Age, provisions have been made whereby persons, who wish to do so, can opt to receive their Age Pension earlier than the normal Pensionable Age that will be in effect at a particular point in time. In that regard, age 60 shall remain the age at which Age Pensions first become payable, but at a reduced rate of 1/2 % per month for every full month prior to the established Pensionable Age that the pension is so taken.

Against that background, the chart below will assist in determining when Insured Persons will become eligible for their full Age Pension and, thus, the Pensionable Age that will be applicable to them.

Pensionable Age Computation Chart

(N.B. 1/2 year = 6 Months)

How to use the above chart

In order to determine the Pensionable Age for an Insured Person, first select his year of birth, then move across (in the same row) to select the Month Range during which he was born. The next two adjacent cells indicate, respectively, the year during which he will reach the Pensionable Age applicable to him and the said Pensionable Age.

For example, a person born in April 1954 will attain his Pensionable Age of 62 1/2 (i.e. 62 years and 6 months) in October 2016 – at which time he will become eligible to receive his full pension. Similarly, a person who was born in November 1955 will qualify for his full pension in November 2019 when he reaches the Pensionable Age of 64 – which is applicable to him.

The following Chart gives the approximate pension percentage an Insured Person is likely to receive upon retirement. Please be advised that the “Number of Working Years” cited in the table is based upon the assumption that the person worked for a period of 52 weeks per year.

The DSS Pension Calculation program is under development but is designed to provide an estimate of what your pension is likely to be, based on present legislation, and data currently available. Check back soon.

Dependent Children are all the biological children, step children, or legally adopted children of a deceased Insured Person who at the date of the parent’s death was below the age of 18, and was living with, or wholly or mainly maintained by the deceased.

A Certificate of Life form is a certificate attesting to the fact that the Pension recipient is alive and in receipt of his pension. The form must be signed by the pensioner in the presence of a witness who must be either of the following persons: Justice of the Peace; Notary Public; Lawyer; Police Officer (Sergeant or above); Ordained Minister of Religion; Doctor; Family Nurse Practitioner; School Principal; Licensed Surveyor; Banker or Credit Union senior Personnel; Social Security Departmental Manager or Compliance/Field Officer. For benefit recipients residing overseas, the Certificate of Life form must be notarized.