SSNIT Warns employers against under declaration of salaries

Wa, Nov. 22, GNA - Mr Felix Adams, Northern Area Manager of Social Security and National Insurance Trust (SSNIT) on Monday, warned against the act of under declaring of salaries and wages of their workers. The act, he said was not only criminal, but was also deprived their employees of their legal contributions, as those contributions were based on level of incomes.

Mr Adams, who gave this warning during a day's seminar organized by SSNIT for employers and the general public at Wa, said it was surprising for some employers in the Upper West Region to declare salaries of workers as low as 45,000 cedis, which he said was criminal. He also appealed to employers to adhere to proper bookkeeping and management of their employees' records, so that any information on them could be easier to find.

Miss Evangeline Amegashie, Deputy Public Affairs officer warned against the transferring of SSNIT numbers from one person to the other, as that could spark off problems for both the owners and employers in the system.

He said SSNIT was now customer focused and would therefore extend all their new services from the headquarters to branches to make their activities accessible to all customers. " Based on the complaints of our numerous customers, every worker is now tagged to make it very easy for customers to identify workers, who misbehave towards them, during any transaction in all our branches" she added.

Miss Amegashie warned that those, who spend part of their contributions to pay back SSNIT Students' Loan scheme, risk reducing their beneficial period when they get onto pension scheme. Mr F.K.M Mobila, Wa Branch Manager appealed to workers due for pension to write to the trust three clear months before they proceed on their retirement to avoid delays in assessing their benefits. Participants asked questions on the Students' Loan scheme, delays in payment of workers benefits and nomination of candidates in case of death.