Social Security Director Confirms UPP Added $127M to Arrears
Antigua and Barbuda’s Social Security Director says arrears owed to the scheme grew sharply under the United Progressive Party (UPP) government’s first term, rising by $127 million between 2003 and 2009.
Appearing on the Browne and Browne Show, David Mathias explained that by October 2003, just before the UPP came to office, the amount outstanding stood at roughly $366 million. By 2009, that figure had increased to nearly $494 million.
Prime Minister Gaston Browne, who was also on the program, calculated that the difference amounted to $127 million in arrears added within the UPP’s first five years in office. Mathias agreed with the assessment, confirming that the arrears came from unpaid premiums, including deductions taken from employees that were not paid over to the scheme.
By 2010, the UPP government consolidated the debt into a Memorandum of Understanding with the Social Security Board, creating a liability of $550 million that combined unpaid contributions, loans, and penalties.
The confirmation underscores the long-running accumulation of arrears across administrations and highlights how the UPP period added substantially to the scheme’s financial burden.
