<<Print>>

An official of the Social Security and National Insurance Trust (SSNIT), has observed that many contributors to the scheme often create problems for their dependants by failing to change their beneficiaries when they marry or have children. Mrs. Adwoa Abebrese, acting Accra Area manager of (SSNIT), who disclosed this said such situations, creates difficulties for dependants in event of death as the scheme does not recognize them as beneficiaries. She gave this word of caution at a talk on Pension organized by the Ladies Association of New Times Corporation in Accra last Friday. She said, it is important that SSNIT contributors update their records regularly to avoid disappointments. A lot of workers in the formal sector she said, forget that retirement will catch up with them one day therefore, they need to be concerned with what happens within that period. She enumerated the categories of Pension benefits as Old Age Pension, Invalidity and Death saying unless one contributes an aggregate of 240 months and is above 55 years, one does not qualify for pension. �If a contributor falls sick after contributing for 12 months out of 36 months of work, the contributor will be paid his/her pension till death provided his/her medical report is confirmed by a medical board. Mr. Asare Som, Corporate Customer Affairs Officer of Accra Area of SSNIT, said some contributors falsify their date of birth. �Some contributors are old yet their ages with SSNIT is nowhere near pensionable age�, he said. Mr. Som said it is important that contributors make their husbands, or wives and their children, their beneficiaries before they consider other relations. At the end of the programme the officials took questions from member of the association.