SSNIT records huge cash in suspense account

WA, Nov. 28, GNA - The Social Security and National Insurance Trust (SSNIT) says it has a huge sum of money lodged in its suspense account as a result of some employers' inability to supply it with the Social security numbers of their employees.

To eliminate this practice, payments of contributions under the new pension scheme would have to be supported by the relevant documents with the amount paid against his or her name.

Mr. Mathew Kyeremanten, the Wa Branch Manager of SSNIT, who made this known at a forum on the New Pension Scheme for heads of departments and their SSNIT schedule officers, at Wa, said no payments would be accepted without the documents.

He said, in the past, SSNIT was more interested in collecting the money so it did not spend time to ensure that the right thing was done by employers and this had led to the huge money in that account, which it also found difficult to utilise.

Mr Kyeremanten said SSNIT has observed that some contributors inflate their salaries during the last three years of their active service so under the new scheme the system would not allow any dramatic hike in salaries. He expressed regret that currently the least contributor in the Upper West Region earned GHC25 a month, saying a person retiring with such a ridiculous salary should not hope to get any better pension from SSNIT. The new pension law, he said, has, therefore, made it obligatory for SSNIT to accept contributions that would be based on the National Minimum Wage.

"We will not accept payments as contributions that are under the approved monthly equivalents of National Daily Minimum Wage," he warned. The SSNIT Branch Manager pointed out that not all illnesses could entitle a person to enjoy invalidity pension, adding that the process leading to the approval of a worker as an invalid was not as easy as many people thought because an applicant had to be examined by a competent medical board. "A person who is blind or lame may still be able to work. So some people have applied for invalidity pension but failed to get the approval of the medical board," he stated.