A prototype for alpha.gov.bb helping gig and self-employed workers in Barbados understand they can contribute to National Insurance (NIS), see what they'd get, and start. Built by GovTech Barbados with NIS.
This is an alpha draft for feedback — not final, and not yet in the live site. The benefit figures still need NIS sign-off (see "Open items").
Two information pages plus a calculator, on the alpha.gov.bb design system:
index.html— Start page. "Working for yourself? You can be covered." Who it's for (with examples), what you get (the seven benefits), and two clear next steps: check your coverage, or see how to get covered.how-to.html— Entry page. "How to get covered." The practical steps: get your NIS number, register, top up if you have a main job, pay, check your benefits and record, and back-pay if you missed years.check.html— Coverage calculator. A short, mobile-first tool that shows, in dollars, what a few weeks off work would cost you and what NIS would pay — tailored to the kind of work you do. (Figures are estimates pending NIS confirmation — see below.)comments.js— the review-comment widget loaded by all three pages (see "Reviewing", below). Keep this file.
The pages link to each other: Start ↔ How to get covered, and Start → the calculator.
Superseded:
what-you-get.htmlandnot-too-late.htmlare no longer used — their content was folded into the Start and Entry pages. Delete them from the repo.
Open the GitHub Pages link (https://govtech-bb.github.io/self-employed-nis/). Please focus on content and wording, whether anything is unclear or untrue, and whether the journey Start → How to get covered / Check your coverage makes sense. It's mobile-first — worth checking on a phone.
Leave feedback on the page: select any text and a 💬 Comment button appears. Use the 💬 Comments panel (bottom-right) to read threads, reply, or resolve them. Comments are saved centrally (Supabase), so the whole team sees the same feedback. Setup notes are in COMMENTS.md.
These only resolve once the pages are inside the real alpha.gov.bb app:
- The header logo, footer links, and the alpha banner link point at live-site routes (
/,/services,/feedback). - The "Register with NIS" button works — it opens the real NIS registration portal in a new tab.
- NIS fact-check (the main blocker). Every benefit, amount, deadline and rule is sourced to NIS (Act 2023-25) in the source note on each page. The calculator's dollar figures are unverified placeholders — they sit in one clearly-marked block at the top of
check.html's script and must be confirmed by the NIS Self-Employed Unit before launch. The known conflict to resolve: the contextual brief says sickness benefit at the $1,200 minimum is ~$30/week; Ann-Marie's earlier prototype computed ~$133/week. - The opt-in is not collecting yet. The calculator's "keep this summary" checkboxes are disabled, pending a signed-off privacy notice (no field collects data until then).
- Currency style. Amounts use
BDS$1,200.00(two decimals). Confirm whether to keep the.00everywhere or drop it on round "about" figures. - Funeral grant and a few benefit details are written plainly and general — confirm the exact names and conditions with NIS.
- Bigger picture: the PM's National Portable Benefits Framework (hours-tracking across employers, engager registration, portability) is out of scope here — this prototype is the voluntary self-employed funnel. Whether GovTech now scopes that platform is a Phase-2 decision.
Standalone HTML for review. Each page carries a self-contained <style> block rebuilt from the live alpha.gov.bb design tokens (colours, spacing, type scale, Figtree) so it renders on its own with no build step.
To bring into the site: delete the <style> block, the Figtree font <link>s, and the <script src="comments.js"> tag; lift the <main> content into the (content)/[...slug] route. The markup uses the real govbb utility classes, so the app's stylesheet and layout (official banner, yellow header, footer) take over. Restore the app's real header/nav. The calculator's estimate logic is isolated in one block in check.html for a clean swap when NIS confirms the numbers.
A few patterns aren't in the captured design-system markup and are flagged with FLAG comments — the breadcrumb and the calculator's option controls — confirm against a content-page template.
Built by GovTech Barbados with NIS. The prototype code — the two content pages, the coverage calculator, the design-system styling, and the select-to-comment review widget — was produced with assistance from Claude (Anthropic), directed and reviewed by the GovTech team.
Plain Barbadian English. WCAG 2.2 AA (skip link, visible focus, breadcrumb landmark, aria-current, semantic headings, keyboard-operable calculator).