Pensions Act amendment reduces workers' benefits

It is now becoming clear that what appeared to have been government’s intransigence in the matter concerning amendments to the pensions Act of 2008, which saw workers pensions being cut from 50% of their average best three years contributions to 37%, was indeed an act of desperation to save the scheme from collapse by the very people who had brought it to its knees.

Information available to Public Agenda suggests that Ghana’s Social Security and National Insurance Trust (SSNIT) came close to collapse, as a result of years of abuse by successive governments, who have treated the scheme in most cases, as a slush fund, which they resort to with careless abandon anytime the government of the day was cash strapped. While SSNIT’s own bad investment decisions have come to threaten the sustainability of pensions in this country, Public Agenda has learned that there have been times when government have had recourse to the scheme to pay salaries of the military.

The scheme has also been compelled by the government to finance the construction of the new court complex adjacent the Customs and Excise Headquarters, and it is not clear how this investment would be recouped with the expected returns if any.

Our information is that, government owes the scheme in excess of GH8 billion, a debt which had to honour its side of the bargain with prospective pensioners.

All these have been possible because government has packed SSNIT’s board with cronies, and the only representative of workers, the TUC, for unexplained reasons, has not been up to its responsibility of protecting workers’ interest on the board.

Unable to settle its debt to SSNIT, the government, in December 2014, went to Parliament to seek an amendment to the Pensions Act of 2008, (Act 766).

The amendment reduced the minimum pension payable to a retiree from 50% to 37.5% of the average annual salary of the retiree’s best three years of his working life.

This decision has not passed without protest from workers. The traders Union Congress, Organised Labour, Teachers and civil service workers have expressed reservations about the amendments, to the extent of the TUC appealing to President Mahama not to assent the law after its passage by Parliament. But, it turned out that the President’s mind was made up. Strangely, not much dissent was heard either, from the opposition MPs in Parliament.

Today, Ghanaian pensioners are waking up to the harsh reality of what the Pensions Amendment Act means to their lives after years of service to their country.

The Labour unions have so far confirmed for themselves that their members have been shortchanged, with the implementation of the new Pension’s Act 2008 with its amendment of 2014.

The first batch of contributors under the new scheme are retiring this year, and reports from some contributors say they are being handed less than 10% of their expected lump sum pensions.

Anxiety is pitching pretty high, as 12 labour unions on Tuesday demanded an immediate government intervention to give pensioners their due, in order to avert any disturbances on the labour front.

Adducing evidence to back their demands, the unions cited the case of a retired principal midwife, Martha Buckman, who apparently went on retirement in January this year.

Explaining her plight to the press, Ms Buckman disclosed that she had contributed to the national pension scheme for 475 months but is said to be entitled to a monthly pension of GHc991.00 and a lump sum of GHc3,751.20.

The union claims that but for the amendments to the Act, Ms Buckman would have been entitled to more, having worked and contributed to the scheme for 45 years.

The inability of SSNIT to rationalize the paltry lump-sum payment and the subsequent referral to the National Pensions Authority, speaks of how difficult matters could be for the authorities as more and more retirees discover the full effect of the amendments to the Pensions Act.

Meanwhile, concerns about the scheme’s sustainability linger on the minds of patrons. It is not clear what the status of government loans contracted from SSNIT is? How much they are? And when they would be paid back?