Premier Michael Dunkley has admitted Government must do a “better job” of collecting state pension contributions from the thousands of delinquent employers who owe $35 million in arrears.

The Royal Gazette revealed this morning that the size of the debt has risen by $20 million or 140 percent since the law was amended six years ago to bring in tougher penalties for lawbreakers.

Mr Dunkley told ZBM News: “I will be very frank that private businesses tend to do a much better job of collecting money than governments do and we need to do a better job in the Bermuda Government of collecting the money, because certainly in good times if any organisation, whether it’s a business or a charity or a government, does not do everything they can to collect the money, people are not going to go out and pay you the money.

“When times get tough, people are going to try and use those resources in other areas just to make it through and Government has to go out and do a better job of collecting money, chasing people to get the money in the coffers, because if we don’t then the programmes that we offer and the benefits that people expect are not going to be there.

“It’s unacceptable and so it’s something I know the Minister of Finance and people in that Ministry are actively looking at how they can collect it.”

Our story revealed that 2,565 employers or self-employed individuals are in arrears for more than 120 days with their contributions to the state pension fund.

The figure represents 45 percent of the total number of employers and self-employed who should be paying into the Contributory Pensions Fund.

The money is missing at a time when seniors have been told they are not getting a pension increase and the number of new claimants is rising dramatically — from 276 residents turning 65 in 2010 to 2,256 this year.

Mr Dunkley has not responded to a request from this newspaper for comment and Finance Minister Bob Richards has also not answered questions directly.