Jamaicans looking for a cash boost in early January have often turned to claiming refunds from the National Housing Trust (NHT), but the trust says those claims consistently fall behind expectations. Contributors can claim refunds for sums deducted from their salaries eight or more years ago.

The NHT says, while in 2020 refundable contributions amounted to $117.55 billion, the claims made only accounted for about 6.5 per cent of that amount. In general, total refunds each year hover below 10 per cent of the refundable contribution.

In the last seven years the refund figure has ranged from a low of $4.4 billion to a high of $6.5 billion. Applications for refunds for the 2014 year of contribution will open in January 2022.

A total of 166, 588 contributors received refunds in the fiscal year ending March 2020, amounting to $7.6 billion, a decrease of 3.1 per cent from the amount paid in 2019. Cash refund for 2019/2020 was $6.5 billion or 5.0 per cent more than sums paid out for 2018/2019. These refunds include sums paid for periods longer than eight years. The NHT, in its latest annual report, indicates that employee contributions remitted to contributors in the fiscal year ended 2020 extended back to 2012.

Contributors who become mortgagors will have the amount for refund applied to their mortgage principal. The remainder of those who claim are paid cash.

The Jamaica Observer reached out to the NHT to receive projections on refunds which will fall due in January 2022, but the trust did not respond to this query. The NHT, however, said its annual reports are available online for review and said that the report for 2020 to 2021 was not yet available.

The trusts website explains that contributors are entitled to receive a “regular” contributions refund in the eighth-year after the contribution was made. This means if one had contributed to the NHT in 2013 , one could have applied for the refund in 2020.

The NHT noted, “If you have a mortgage that you received directly from the NHT, then you should not apply for your refund as it will automatically be credited to your mortgage account with an effective date of January 1 of the eighth year.”

Formally employed Jamaicans are mandated to make NHT contributions from their incomes. Under the pay-as-you-earn method, workers have the amount deducted from their salaries which their employers remit on their behalf. Self-employed people are also expected to contribute. Two to three per cent of employees earnings are deducted for NHT contributions, depending on where you are employed. For example, those working as gardners or helpers should pay two per cent of the salary while those working in companies pay three per cent.

While the sum becomes refundable after eight years, the amount held as refundable contributions continue to rise for the NHT each year, with claims amounting to less than ten percent of the total.

The trend for the last few years as follows. In 2019 refundable contributions were $107.97 billion while the total refunded was $6.2 billion in cash. In 2018, refundable contributions totalled $99.17 billion, but only $5.5 billion in claims were paid out. For 2017, there was not much difference. Refundable contributions in that year was $91.25 billion but refunds were in the region of $5.3 billion. For 2016, $87.82 billion was refundable. The amount for cash refunds was $5.1 billion. In 2015 the amount that available for refund was $80.66 billion but only $5.4 billion was refunded. Finally, in 2014 refundable contributions amounted to $75. 54 billion with $4.4 billion refunded. The sums available for refund are cumulative, meaning those not paid out are carried forward. It is not clear how long the NHT holds these unclaimed funds and if there are any proposals on what to do with it after. The government has however been tapping the trust to help finance its spending plans to the tune of $57 billion over the next five years.

For the period reviewed, contributions to the NHT, ranged from a low of $21.41 billion received in 2014 to a high of $38. 2 billion in 2019.

The NHT now has total assets at the end of fiscal March 2020 of $309.8 billion, as reported in its 2019/2020 annual report. Loans receivable were valued at just over $256 billion for the period.

For fiscal year ended March 2021, the NHT reported accumulated profit of $167.29 billion, this compared to accumulated profit of $159 billion at year end March 2019.