Leave a comment and share
Chuks Udo Okonta
About 169,419 Retirement Saving Account (RSA) holders under the age of 50 years who were disengaged from work and were unable to secure another job within four months of disengagement, have received N52.91 billion as 25 per cent of their RSA balance, since inception of the Contributory Pension Scheme (CPS), Inspen can report.
The National Pension Commission (PenCom) revealed this in its second quarter 2016 report, stating that in the quarter under review, it granted approval for payment of N3.36 billion to 10,058 RSA holders under the age of 50 years, who were disengaged from work and were unable to secure another job within four months of disengagement.
The Commission noted that the private sector accounts for 95.27 per cent of the 169,419 disengaged workers amounting to 161,402, adding that 5,824 of the disengaged workers were from the Federal Government organisations, while 2193 were from the states.
Inspen gathered that greater parts of the N52.91 billion paid by PFAs to disengaged workers went to junior staff.
PenCom said approval was also granted for the payment of N4.57 billion as death benefits to the beneficiaries of 1,145 deceased employees during the quarter under review.
The regulator maintained that cumulative payments of death benefits of N105.09 billion have been paid to 35,555 deceased employees from private and public sector, including group life insurance benefits.
According to PenCom, 50 per cent of documents it processed last year, were from disengaged workers.
Head, Benefits and Insurance Department, PenCom, Olulana Loyinmi, said the increase in the number of contributors applying for the 25 per cent of their pension contributions was as a result of increase in the number of people that have lost their jobs.
“On the magnitude of people who have made temporary access to their retirement savings account in the form of withdrawals of 25 per cent, the latest figure as at September, 2016 is 177,000,which when compared to the number of people who have actually retired and are getting their pension, the figure are almost the same.
“That is an indication of how people are losing their jobs or are getting disengaged and having waited for about four months without getting another job, they resort to access their retirement account. If you measure in number, the documents we process, it is almost about half (50%) of activities of the commission since January,” he said.
