Belmopan City Council Clears Social Security Arrears

After years of outstanding payments, the Belmopan City Council has successfully settled hundreds of thousands of dollars in arrears. This brings the Council into full compliance with Belize’s social security requirements.

The Belmopan City Council stated earlier today, “In just nine months, Mayor Cawich, along with the Councillors and their team, has managed to pay off hundreds of thousands of dollars in arrears to Belize Social Security—an achievement the Council is immensely proud of.”

In a formal statement from the Social Security Board (SSB), it was confirmed that the Belmopan City Council is now fully compliant with Social Security legislation.

“I write to confirm that the employer, Belmopan City Council, bearing employer number D333, is currently fully compliant with the Social Security Legislation and its ensuing regulations as it relates to the payment of Social Security contributions for his full cadre of employees,” said SSB in the letter.

In June 2019, a Belmopan City Council employee was denied sickness benefits by the Belize Social Security Board (SSB) due to a lack of contributions. The mayor at that time, Khalid Belisle, confirmed that the council had fallen over $100,000 behind in payments but had made an agreement with the Social Security Board to pay off the arrears by July. He clarified that once the arrears were paid, the council would stay current with future payments. To address this, the SSB introduced a policy to publicly shame employers who fail to make contributions, alerting employees to the issue.

Similarly, the Belize City Council had also owed around $77,000 in unpaid contributions, which was later addressed by PUP Mayor Bernard Wagner.