By LCN Business Desk
Prime Minister Gaston Browne said on 25 October 2026 that the government is weighing whether to ask four public institutions for up to $60 million toward two new hotels, with Cabinet to decide on Wednesday. One of the four is a pension fund whose last published actuarial review was conducted twelve years ago.
What does the Fund's own actuary say?
That it holds no liquid assets and cannot meet its expenditure from contributions.
The 10th and 11th Actuarial Reviews of the Antigua-Barbuda Social Security Fund were conducted as at 31 December 2014 by Morneau Shepell and reported on 4 September 2015. They are published on the Social Security Board's own reports page. The summary of the Fund's state reads:
"The Antigua-Barbuda Social Security Fund continues to operate in a pay-as-you-go state with no liquid assets and regular contributions insufficient to meet expenditure. The Fund now depends on ad hoc contributions from Government to help meet its current benefit payments, payroll and other administrative costs. For a third consecutive year, weekly benefit and monthly pension payments are being made late."
The review also records that expenditure has exceeded contribution income in every year since 2009.
What does the Fund actually hold?
Mostly a claim on the government.
| Fund balance sheet, 31 December 2014 | $m |
|---|---|
| Investments, non-government | 80.1 |
| Claim on the Government under the 2010 Memorandum of Understanding | 524.7 |
| Other receivables and assets | 38.1 |
| Total assets | 642.9 |
Source: 10th and 11th Actuarial Reviews, Table 1.4.
That makes the government claim 81.6 per cent of the Fund's assets, a calculation from the two figures above. An investment portfolio of that shape is not diversified away from its sponsor; it is a single exposure to it.
When does the government repay it?
From 2031, and the asset swap that was meant to come first had not happened.
The Memorandum of Understanding was signed in 2010 and consolidated what the government already owed the Fund: outstanding contributions, loans and rents, bonds and treasury bills, an outstanding principal of $329.7 million. The review states the repayment terms as "$330 million payable in twenty semi-annual amounts starting January 2031", with interest payments running from 2010 to 2041.
The review adds that as at December 2014 "no real assets have been swapped", the exchanges of government-owned property into the Fund anticipated under the 2010 Memorandum having not occurred.
So on the last published account, the Fund's largest asset was a government obligation whose principal repayment was still seventeen years away, and whose property-exchange leg had not begun.
Has anything been done since?
The price of membership has risen every year, on the authority of that same 2014 review.
| Contribution rate | Public sector | Private sector | Self-employed |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2024 | 14.5 per cent | 15.5 per cent | 10 per cent |
| 2025 | 15 per cent | 16 per cent | 10 per cent |
Source: Antigua and Barbuda Social Security Board media releases of 28 December 2023 and 31 December 2024.
The Board's release of 31 December 2024 states that from 1 January 2025 the pension age moved to 65 and contribution rates rose by half a percentage point, and that "the decision to increase the contribution rates and pension age was based on recommendations by the 10th and 11th Actuarial Reviews, 2014". Its reforms page carries equivalent notices for 2021, 2022 and 2023, so the half-point annual increase is a published series.
Contributors are therefore paying a rate set by a review of a position measured twelve years ago, and working four years longer than they once would have.
Is there a newer review?
Not on the Board's published record, and the Act asks for one every three years.
Section 18 of the Social Security Act requires actuarial reviews at three-year intervals, as the Board states on its own 9th review page. The reviews it publishes are the 9th, as at 31 December 2009, and the 10th and 11th combined, as at 31 December 2014. Whether reviews as at 2017, 2020 or 2023 were conducted is not evidenced on its published reports page.
An independent projection sits alongside. International Monetary Fund Working Paper WP/16/206, dated 17 October 2016, recorded from the actuarial reviews then available that the scheme's expenditure first exceeded contribution income in 2009 and its total income in 2010, and put its pay-as-you-go rate at 15.7 per cent.
Guyana's National Insurance Scheme states in its own 2023 accounts that the actuary's recommendations were not implemented, which this newspaper reported on 23 October. Antigua and Barbuda's position is the mirror of it: the recommendations are being implemented, half a point at a time, and the review behind them has no published successor.
Has the government offered the Fund an asset?
In August 2025 it offered a hotel.
Mr Browne led off a parliamentary debate that month on investing the funds of the scheme, named in those proceedings as the National Social Security Scheme, in the Jolly Beach Resort. The government's account, as reported by the Caribbean Media Corporation on 25 August 2025, was that the resort would be used to settle part of the obligation owed to the Social Security Board.
| The Jolly Beach package, August 2025 | Figure |
|---|---|
| Obligation owed to the Social Security Board, dated to 2010 | EC$330 million |
| Jolly Beach Resort, 27 acres, valuation | EC$67 million |
| Cabinet allocation to renovate 33 rooms and build a conference facility | EC$20 million |
| Injection into the resort | About EC$75 million |
| Bond to be issued over five years, at 3 per cent then 5 | EC$450 million |
| Rooms to be sold under the Citizenship by Investment Programme | 315 |
| Browne's estimated return to the scheme | About EC$400 million over ten years |
Source: Caribbean Media Corporation, 25 August 2025, reporting the government's statement and the Prime Minister's remarks in Parliament. One East Caribbean dollar was given there as US$0.37.
The government's position was that the obligation had remained non-performing for over a decade, "compromising the scheme's financial health and its ability to meet pension obligations", and that on completion of the works the resort would be vested in the Social Security Board. Mr Browne told legislators the hotel "has struggled, has not turned a profit under the private entities who operated it".
Whether the vesting completed, the bond was issued or the arrears were consolidated is not evidenced in the published record this newspaper has searched.
That plan also rests on a programme with a date on it: the 315 rooms were to be sold under the Citizenship by Investment Programme, which the same Prime Minister said on 24 October is likely to be suspended by 12 November and ended by 1 June 2028. Neither account connects them. Both are in the published record.
What is established, and what is not?
The 2014 position and the 2025 rates are published. The position today is not.
Established: the Fund's state as at 31 December 2014 on its own actuary's account, the composition and repayment terms of the 2010 Memorandum, the contribution rates and pension age in force from 1 January 2025, and that the Board publishes no actuarial review later than 2014.
Not established: the Fund's reserves, liquidity or government receivable today, whether any review after 2014 exists, and whether the Jolly Beach vesting completed. Twelve years have passed, the contribution rate has risen by half a point a year and the pension age has moved, so nothing in the 2014 review describes the Fund as it stands.
That is the balance sheet now being asked for $10 million to $20 million toward a new hotel. The proposal itself, and the three other public institutions named alongside it, are set out here.
The entities
- Antigua and Barbuda Social Security Board administers the Social Security Fund, which manages contributions and pays benefits to insured workers and pensioners.
- 10th and 11th Actuarial Reviews of the Antigua-Barbuda Social Security Fund, conducted as at 31 December 2014 by Morneau Shepell and reported on 4 September 2015, are the most recent actuarial reviews the Board publishes.
- 2010 Memorandum of Understanding is the agreement consolidating what the Government owed the Fund, with a $329.7 million outstanding principal repayable in twenty semi-annual amounts from January 2031.
- Section 18 of the Social Security Act is the provision requiring actuarial reviews at three-year intervals.
- Jolly Beach Resort is the 27-acre beachfront property, valued at EC$67 million in 2025, proposed for vesting in the Social Security Board.
- Citizenship by Investment Programme is the programme under which 315 Jolly Beach rooms were to be sold.
- Caribbean Media Corporation (CMC) is the regional news agency whose 25 August 2025 report is the source for the Jolly Beach package.
- International Monetary Fund Working Paper WP/16/206, "National Insurance Scheme Reforms in the Caribbean", dated 17 October 2016, is the source for the pay-as-you-go rate.
- Gaston Browne is the Prime Minister of Antigua and Barbuda, who led the August 2025 parliamentary debate on the Jolly Beach proposal.
What the title card shows
Every data point on the article's title card, in text.
- 81.6 per cent. The share of the Fund's total assets held as a claim on the Government under the 2010 Memorandum of Understanding, calculated from $524.7 million of $642.9 million. Source: 10th and 11th Actuarial Reviews, as at 31 December 2014.
- No liquid assets. The Fund's state in the words of that review. Source: as above.
- 2014. The date as at which the most recent published actuarial review was conducted. Source: the Social Security Board's reports page.
- January 2031. When repayment of the $330 million principal begins, in twenty semi-annual amounts. Source: the same review.
- 16 per cent. The private-sector contribution rate from 1 January 2025, with the public sector at 15 per cent and the self-employed at 10. Source: the Board's release of 31 December 2024.
- 65. The pension age from 1 January 2025. Source: as above.
Frequently Asked Questions
What is the most recent actuarial review of Antigua and Barbuda's Social Security Fund?
The 10th and 11th Actuarial Reviews, conducted as at 31 December 2014 by Morneau Shepell and reported on 4 September 2015. They are the most recent the Social Security Board publishes. Section 18 of the Social Security Act requires reviews at three-year intervals, and whether reviews as at 2017, 2020 or 2023 were conducted is not evidenced on the Board's published reports page.
What did that review find?
That the Fund "continues to operate in a pay-as-you-go state with no liquid assets and regular contributions insufficient to meet expenditure", depends on ad hoc contributions from Government, and that for a third consecutive year benefit and pension payments were being made late. Expenditure had exceeded contribution income in every year since 2009.
How much of the Fund is owed to it by the government?
On that review's balance sheet, $524.7 million of $642.9 million in total assets as at 31 December 2014, which is 81.6 per cent, held under a 2010 Memorandum of Understanding. The review states repayment of the $330 million principal in twenty semi-annual amounts from January 2031, and that as at December 2014 no real assets had been swapped.
What are the current contribution rates and pension age?
From 1 January 2025, 15 per cent for the public sector, 16 per cent for the private sector and 10 per cent for the self-employed, with a pension age of 65. The Board attributes both the rate rise and the age change to the recommendations of the 10th and 11th Actuarial Reviews of 2014.
Does the Fund hold a hotel?
In August 2025 the government proposed settling part of its obligation by vesting the Jolly Beach Resort in the Social Security Board, in a package the Caribbean Media Corporation reported on 25 August 2025. Whether that vesting completed is not evidenced in the published record this newspaper has searched.