adminThose still working at 60 can continue contributing to the pension scheme and claim their pension at age 65.
Those who have been working in one of the categories of work defined by NSSA as arduous employment can claim their pension at age 55, provided they have been engaged in that employment for at least seven years after they attain the age of 45.
It is also necessary to have been contributing for at least 120 months, which is 10 years, in order to claim a pension.
Those who have contributed for less than that but for more than 12 months can claim a retirement grant when they reach the stipulated retirement age.
However, a number of contributors seem to feel that they should be allowed to claim a pension at a much earlier age.
Reasons that have been given for this are that a person may have been retrenched and be unable to obtain new employment, or may have been in a job where there is an earlier retirement age or simply have decided they no longer wish to work.
“What of those people who are not due (for their pension) when a company goes into liquidation after they have been contributing for more than 10 years and are not seeking any form of employment?” one reader wrote recently, adding that this was where most workers stood at the moment.
One wonders, of course, why such people would not be seeking further employment.
The norm in any society is that people are expected to work in order to receive an income, until they reach retirement age.
Generally, if they lose their job they do their best to find another one.
In some countries social security systems have been established that include unemployment benefits.
That could be a type of benefit that Zimbabwe might one day consider introducing.
However, that day is likely to be a long way off.
NSSA was formed to manage various social security benefits. It started with a national pension scheme.
Other schemes that have been under consideration include national health insurance and maternity benefits.
These are likely to be introduced before any unemployment scheme can be considered.
Even in countries where there is an unemployment benefit, there is generally an expectation that those who lose their jobs will, while receiving unemployment benefit, do their best to become employed again.
Often there is a limit to the period for which one can receive unemployment benefit.
The point that needs to be appreciated is that the NSSA pension scheme is a retirement benefit scheme intended primarily to provide an income for those who are
unable to continue working because of their age.
It is not an unemployment scheme.
A pension is paid to a pensioner for the rest of his or her life. The NSSA pension scheme, like other social security pension schemes, is designed as a contributory scheme that will provide employees with a degree of income security in their old age.
Because pensions are payable for the rest of a person’s natural life, some social security pension schemes, such as the one in the United States, have found themselves in difficulties as people are living longer and so pensions are having to be paid for a longer period than was originally envisaged.
Now imagine what would happen if, as some people are advocating, pensions were paid to people who retired at earlier ages than the NSSA scheme was designed
for.
Some of those who have written to this column stating that they are now retired and not intending to take up new employment are in their forties or even, in one case, late thirties.
Retirement pension schemes are designed to pay people pensions in their old age.
Schemes such as the NSSA pension scheme are designed ideally for those who, after working and contributing for 40 years or more, are able to retire on a pension that constitutes more than 60 percent of their insurable earnings on retirement at the age of 60 or 65.
Those who find themselves unemployed before they have reached retirement age should endeavour to find new employment and continue contributing in order to increase their contribution period, since the size of their pension when they do reach retirement age will depend in part on how long they have contributed for.
Finding unemployment may seem difficult for some people in the current economic environment.
However, the NSSA pension scheme is designed as an old age pension scheme, not an unemployment benefit scheme.
It can only remain viable if it continues to operate as an old age retirement benefit scheme.
- Talking Social Security is published weekly by the National Social Security Authority as a public service. Readers can e-mail issues they would like dealt with in this column to [email protected] or text them to 0735 041 278. Those with individual queries should contact their local NSSA office or telephone NSSA on (04) 706517-8 or 706523-5.
Online Reporter