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Chuks Udo Okonta
A member of the Federal House of Representatives, Hon. Amadi Dennis Oguerinwa,
has proposed a bill to alter section 7 of the the Pension Reform Act (PRA) 2014, to raise pension benefits for those disengaged from work and were unable to secure another job within four months of disengagement, from 25 per cent to 50 per cent of the contributions in their Retirement Saving Account (RSA).
Oguerinwa, who represents the Ezeagu/Udi Federal Constituency of Enugu State, is also seeking the increase of contributions by employers from 10 per cent to 12 per cent, which when added to the eight per cent contributed by employees will amount to 20 per cent to be contributed and remitted to Pension Fund Administrators (PFAs)
He prayed the House to amend section 4 subsection (1) of the PRA 2014, by substituting the word ’10’ in paragraph (a) for the word 12.
He also prayed the House to substitute the word 25 in section seven subsection (2) with 50.
Other sections the Representative wants amended are 20; 50; 77; 99; 109 and 120.
According to him, Section 120 of the Act should be amended in clause 2 by substituting the world 2013 with 2014. This amended will correct the error which placed the commencement of the Act in 2013 as against 2014.
The section erroneously reads: “As from the commencement of this Bill means the commencement of the Pension Reform Act 2013 and shall, where the context so admits, include the effective date of the repeal of the Pension Reform Act 2004 (as amended) under section 117 of this Bill.”
Get details: http://www.nassnig.org/document/download/8487
About 169,419 RSA holders under the age of 50 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).
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.
