SSNIT works to retain its contributors

Ho, Sept 09, GNA - The Social Security and National Insurance Trust (SSNIT) would do everything feasible to meet the expectations of contributors and retain the membership of professional bodies in the scheme. Mr Kweku Osei-Bimpong, the Public Affairs Manager of SSNIT, said this in Ho on Wednesday during interaction with journalists as part of the Trust's yearly drive to reach out to stakeholders in order to build a stronger social security system.

He said SSNIT was challenged by hints by the Ghana National Association of Teachers (GNAT) to pull out its members from the scheme because of the low pensions being offered.

Mr Osei-Bimpong said numbers are important for any social security system so SSNIT would work to keep all its members.

He said SSNIT was also looking forward to working with the new impetus that recommendations of the Presidential Commission on pensions would bring to bear on pensions management in the country. Mr Osei-Bimpong said the Trust's medium term cooperate objective launched in 2002 to increase coverage, reduce processing time for benefits, increase returns on investments and improve customer relations among others was being met.

He said customer service centres had been opened at all big branches to take up customer concerns and link up with the appropriate departments to resolve them.

Mr Osei-Bimpong said SSNIT has now undertaken to trace student loan defaulters on behalf of guarantors who were finding it difficult to locate such defaulters.

He said the problem of SSNIT with regard to contributors had to do more with data than the lodgement of monies. Mr Osei-Bimpong said many contributors failed to update information in the custody of SSNIT and some employers did not provide adequate data with payments.

Mrs Mame Akua Amoah, Area Manager for Eastern and Volta regions, said under the children's act, children of contributors of school going age were entitled to benefits even if the contributors did not nominate them.