EDITORIAL COMMENT: Pension funds must review pay-outs to pensioners

 

Many Zimbabweans prefer to spend their retirement years in the rural areas where life is relatively cheap. Most of these senior citizens’ monthly pensions can hardly meet the basics in urban areas hence many of them relocate to their rural homes once they retire.

Many pensioners are being paid amounts ranging from $20 to $60 a month which is not enough to pay rent for just a room in town. Those that were fortunate to buy houses during their working days cannot pay water and electricity bills using the paltry pension payouts.

It is for this reason that pensioners find settling in the rural areas more comfortable compared to city life.

The pensioners who have moved to their rural homes however face a serious challenge of travelling back to town every month to collect their pension payouts.

The bulk of the payments is as a result gobbled by transport costs leaving them with very little to spend.

At times the pensioners travel to town only to learn that the payment dates have been changed.

This is not just an inconvenience but means extra costs to the already struggling senior citizens. We want at this juncture to commend the National Social Security Authority for its decision to engage mobile network operators with a view to using their mobile payment platforms to pay pensioners.

The proposed payment system will not only significantly reduce pensioners’ costs but will also be a very convenient payment system. It is a fact that most pensioners are very old people who are finding it difficult to move around so travelling every month to town to receive their pensions is very strenuous.

Many cases have been reported of pensioners losing money to thieves and in some cases the senior citizens have been knocked down by cars trying to cross city roads.

NSSA acknowledges that many of its beneficiaries are either unbanked or live in places where it’s costly to access banking services and it is because of this realisation that it has decided to use mobile payment platforms. The authority has also confirmed that most of its beneficiaries are receiving very little money, the bulk of which is spent on transport to town and back.

It is our fervent hope that other pension funds are also switching to the mobile payment platforms to assist members cut on transport costs. The acknowledgement by NSSA that its beneficiaries are getting very little pensions should be taken very seriously.

The issue of low pension payouts is across all sectors of the economy and there is an urgent need to address the anomaly. Pensioners from both the public and private sector are not enjoying their last days in life because of the little amount they are paid as pension. What is painful is that these workers sacrificed a lot during their working days to contribute to their pension only to be paid peanuts.

Most pension funds have invested in buildings and other schemes but the owners of the money who are the pensioners are not enjoying the fruits of this investment.

The people who are enjoying the benefits of these investments are the administrators of pension funds who move around in posh cars and are paid hefty salaries. Government should urgently address this anomaly which has caused untold suffering of senior citizens. The purpose of contributing to a pension fund is to enable an individual to enjoy life after retiring but this is not the case in Zimbabwe now.

We want to implore pension funds to urgently review upwards the pension payouts to enable pensioners to meet at least the basics.

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