Dr. John Ofori-Tenkorang, the Director General of Social Security and National Insurance Trust (SSNIT), has called on employers to restructure salaries of employees and pay a good premium for a better retirement package.
The employers are also not to load allowances of workers and give meagre salaries, but rather offer good salaries and register all employees including casuals onto the scheme to enable them to enjoy a peaceful retirement.
“You as an employee must also not in any way forge a wrong alliance with your employer to dodge the scheme…you certainly do so at your own risks in the future, ” he added.
The Director General was speaking with stakeholders at the 2022 annual stakeholders’ forum under the theme: “Sustainability of the Scheme; The Role of the Employer.”
The stakeholders’ engagement was aimed at strengthening the relations between the Trust and employers to help deepen their understanding of the operations of the First Tier Social Security Scheme and to discuss challenges facing employers concerning the SSNIT Scheme and how they could be resolved.
According to the SSNIT data, only 49 percent of registered clients were high on compliance, “though the Trust have 80,434 only 39, 242 were actually on point and are responsive to the requirement of the scheme”.
Already, some 2, 885 employers have been taken to court in 2022 for failure to pay their employees contributions to the scheme.
As of the end of May 2022, the Trust had retrieved more than GHC101.38 million through court action, Dr. Ofori-Tenkorang announced.
Dr. Ofori-Tenkorang said the scheme offered an inbuilt life insurance, invalidity pension adding, “it’s only SSNIT that’s assured one of longevity pension ….and as stakeholders we must uphold the scheme and guard it”.
The scheme, as part of improved service delivery, has launched an online payment system through SSNIT pay to promote voluntary contributions particularly in the informal sector.
The scheme, he stated, was not a gratuity but a contributory scheme, which is akin to any insurance scheme insurance …., “so if you insure the barest minimum that they can ensure whilst they are working you get an obviously low pension.”
Already the SSNIT as of September 2022, paid GH¢2.7 billion to more than 200,000 beneficiaries of the Scheme.
The Trust disbursed an amount of GH¢3.6 billion to beneficiaries in 2021 while a total of 229,465 pensioners received GH¢280 million in September 2022 in pensions.
Dr. Ofori-Tenkorang added that a total of GH¢18.4 million was paid in 2021 as invalidity pension to 1,536 pensioners.
The Emigration benefit payments totalled GH¢11.8 million in 2021.
So far, 1,279,849 active Members have merged their SSNIT and GhanaCard numbers as of September 2022.
He added that benefit processing time had reduced waiting time by 78.72 per cent from 47 days in 2016 to 10 days in 2022.
