The Social Security and National Insurance Trust (SSNIT) says there is a need to review laws on the country’s pension scheme.
Director-General of the Trust, Dr. John Ofori Tenkorang noted that there should be considerations to pay beneficiaries based on the average of their total active years instead of the average of their best three years.
He made this point during a presentation at the Pre-May Day Forum held on Wednesday under the theme: Sustainable Pensions: The Role of Social Partners.
He said “SSNIT is committed to paying all legitimate claims that come before it. I must state unequivocally that SSNIT is not cheating pensioners. It is not in my interest or any SSNIT employee not to pay the legitimate claim to any pensioners.”
“And we must also have some conversation on whether it is appropriate to just pay dividends based on only best three years of contributions. In other jurisdictions like the UK, the lifetime average is what is used,” he added.
The Trust also rubbished claims that private investments are more advantageous than paying SSNIT contributions.
Citing several policies to buttress his claim, including the Invalidity Policy which under certain terms and conditions, obligates SSNIT to pay dividends to an inactive contributor, Dr. Ofori-tenkorang said Ghanaians are simply unaware of such generous policies hence, the erroneous notion.
SSNIT working on legislation to address pension computation concerns
SSNIT has denied allegations that it is shortchanging contributors out of their benefits based on the scheme’s alleged flawed computation system.
A committee of the Trade Unions Congress reported that SSNIT misinterprets what constitutes annual salary, early retirement reduction factor and annuity factor on lump sum which ultimately affects the contributor.
Though SSNIT admits that there may indeed be a fundamental flaw with the legal regime on pensions, scheme is not cheating contributors.
The scheme is, however, putting together legislation to clarify alleged ambiguities in its computation regime.
The Ministry of Employment and Labour Relations has also started consultations in a bid to address organised labour’s concerns over SSNIT’s methodology for computing pension funds.
Director-General of SSNIT, Dr. John Ofori Tenkorang admitted that there were gaps in the drafting of the law “which lend themselves to various forms of interpretation.”
