Some of the participants. INSET: Dr Ofori Tenkorang
THE SOCIAL Security and National
Insurance Trust (SSNIT) spent close to GH¢2.5 billion on benefit payments last
year.
The Trust spends over GH¢200
million to fund pension payments to over 200,000 pensioners every month.
Director General of SSNIT Dr Ofori
Tenkorang stated this at an educational forum organized by his outfit in
collaboration with the Trades Union Congress (TUC) in Takoradi to discuss
social security issues, particularly, on pensions and
benefit computations.
The forum was also aimed at promoting
knowledge of the SSNIT scheme, empowering organized labour as peer educators
for the Trust, as well as demystifying some of the issues surrounding benefit
computations. He noted that a core mandate of SSNIT was to pay benefits
and that such mandate had faithfully been executed over the years. He indicated
that pensions were indexed every year to maintain the purchasing power of
pensioners.
“The Trust increases the benefits
of pensioners through the annual indexation which was started in 1992. This
is determined using the average salary growth of active contributions, annual
average change in consumer price index and the cost implications of applying
various rates of indexation on the fund,” he said.
Dr Ofori-Tenkorang disclosed that
there were no myths surrounding benefit computations, and that pensions were a
direct reflection of salaries on which contributions were paid.
“In effect, the salary on which one
contributes is a key factor in the computation of pensions. Therefore, the
higher the salary you contribute on, the higher your pension,” he explained.
Pension Manager Joseph Poku took
participants through how to estimate their pensions. He stated that three
factors were considered in the computation, which included the age at which one
retired, the average of best three years’ basic salaries on which one
contributed and the number of months of contributions.
Deputy Secretary General of TUC
Joshua Ansah noted that pensions had been a major concern for workers in the
country, adding “that is why we felt it was necessary to bring the top
hierarchy of SSNIT to address the concerns of workers.”
He called on every worker in Ghana to take active interest in their social security and retirement planning.
From Emmanuel Opoku, Takoradi
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