The Trades Union Congress (TUC) says the government must cover for the shortage in payment of lump sums to pensioners who began retiring in 2020.
The TUC said this must be done as stipulated under the new pensions law, the National Pensions Act 2008 (Act 766).
The TUC secretary general, Yaw Baah, said the government must top up the difference on the pensioners’ past credits and second-tier contributions.
PNDC Law 247, which created the Social Security and National Insurance Trust (SSNIT), has been replaced by Act 766. The past credit is the contributions of workers whose retirement took place ten years after Act 766 came into force.
The implementation of Act 766 in 2010 means that this year’s batch of retirees is the first group of people who are no longer eligible for the SSNIT lump-sum payment.
Inaccurate calculation
The TUC and other labour unions have already kicked against a formula, approved by the National Pensions Regulatory Authority (NPRA), which allows pensioners to access only a fraction of the contributions they have made since joining the mandatory SSNIT pension scheme, instead of the lump sum under PNDC Law 247.
The TUC believes the computation has been wrong since Act 766 came into force. It argues that past credits of pensioners in 2020 did not tally with the benefits they would have received under the old law in previous years.
Dr Baah said it is not fair for people who retired in 2020 to receive far lower amounts than they would have received if they had retired under PNDC Law 247.
He cited the case of a member who received a lump sum of GHC39,000 after retiring this year, whereas his junior who retired in 2018 took home a lump sum of GHC57,000.
Difference must be paid
The TUC secretary general said the government, therefore, must settle the difference in the lump sum for pensioners who have suffered this shortage.
He said it cannot be justified that senior members with higher SSNIT contributions were receiving less than their juniors.
“The only crime of those receiving these low lump sums is that they retired in 2020, under Act 766, so they deserve to receive their difference back,” Dr Baah said.
“That difference must be paid by somebody, and that somebody is Ghana. Therefore, the government must, with immediate effect, pay the difference to pensioners who have suffered this shortage.”
He said talks are ongoing between the TUC and the government on how to get the computation right.
E A Alanore
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