Pay back $147,000

The NIB said they discovered he was a PriceSmart employee for those six years, making him ineligible for the benefit. The man confirmed that he did work at PriceSmart, but only for two months. And that was six years ago.

Last September, Merrill Auguste, 42, of Guapo Main Road, Fyzabad noticed the invalidity benefit he was receiving since 2010 was not give to him that month.

He queried the non-payment at NIB’s Siparia branch many times but did not receive an explanation until he was asked to visit the branch in November.

“Looking at the screen, the clerk said she did not know I was still working PriceSmart,” said a still bemused Auguste.

Auguste said the clerk explained she was seeing NIS payments from Pricesmart between 2010 and 2016. This meant he was working and, therefore, ineligible for the benefit. Overwhelmed by the news, Auguste left the office and returned to collect the official letter.

The letter, dated November 15, 2016 and undersigned by the manager of the Siparia Service Centre of the NIB (without an accompanying print of the name), read, “After reviewing your claim for the invalidity benefit, it was discovered that you were overpaid the benefit in the sum of one hundred and forty-seven thousand, eight hundred and thirty-six dollars and seventy-five cents for the period 12/04/2016 to 11/09/2016.” The letter asked Auguste to visit the Siparia Service Centre to discuss a repayment method.

Auguste said he tried many times to explain that there must have been an error in the system.

He did work at PriceSmart, but only for two months.

He even provided the NIB with a payroll summary from Pricesmart as proof, but again to no avail. Auguste provided Newsday with a copy of the payroll summary which showed him being paid on a weekly basis between April 18, 2010 and June 6, 2010, NIS contributions and all.

Auguste lost his left leg in a car accident on July 6, 2007 while on his way to work as a helicopter operator at Transocean Ltd. Because the accident occurred on his way to work, his company agreed to pay him the land rate of his salary for the 16 months remaining on his three-year contract. When these payments stopped in 2010, Auguste applied for, and successfully qualified to receive an invalidity benefit from the NIB.

Though he qualified, Auguste did not start receiving the payment until several months after.

Unable to wait for the benefit to support his 16 and 10-year-old sons and his 15-year-old daughter, Auguste applied to work at PriceSmart and did so as a loss prevention officer for two months before leaving as he had not adjusted to his prosthetic leg.

When the paperwork at the NIB finally went through, he was first paid an $18,000 lump sum for the months between his qualifying for the benefit and when it started being paid. From then, Auguste said he “worked magic” to provide for his children with the $1,500 monthly benefit.

Only 32, at the time of the accident, Auguste’s life was changed forever. And the $147,836.75 claim hanging over his head has been a further blow. Auguste said his wife of seven years left him mere days after he lost his leg, and he has had to raise his three children as a single father. He did so proudly, often relying on them for much needed emotional support.

“I refer to them as my angels,” said Auguste, “because if wasn’t for my children standing at my side after my accident, I don’t know what I would have done.” When he stopped receiving the benefit last September, he was forced to give his children back to his former wife.

Auguste wants justice and not pity, although he said the last ten years of his life have been like “a nightmare that is never ending.” He has turned to writing poetry to cope.