adminIn most cases such people would like to receive their retirement benefit early. One correspondent wrote: “I am 53 years old who retired due to ill health in 2009. I was told that I will get my NSSA benefit when I’m 60 years old. How do I get there? Who will be financing me or paying my medical bills?”
The normal earliest retirement age for national pension scheme retirement benefits is 60. There is an early retirement age of 55 but it is only applicable to those who have been working for at least seven of the 10 preceding years in an occupation considered arduous.
Jobs that fall into that category include all agricultural work, driving heavy-duty trucks, working in quarries, certain forestry and mining jobs.
Anyone who has contributed to the national pension scheme for 120 months or more and retires at the age 60 or between the ages of 60 and 65 is eligible for a retirement benefit.
The latest retirement age for benefits purposes is 65, at which age the contributor should claim his or her benefit whether retired or not.
However, if a contributor or former contributor is less than 60 years of age and permanently incapable of working due to physical or mental health challenges, he or she can claim invalidity benefit.
To qualify for invalidity benefit a contributor must be medically certified as permanently incapable of working.
He or she must also have contributed for at least 12 months to be eligible for an invalidity pension.
If contributions have been made for less than 12 months but for at least six months, then an invalidity grant would be payable.
The 53-year-old correspondent who retired on health grounds in 2009 would presumably have been 49 then, which is a rather young age to retire.
If he is permanently incapable of working due to ill health, then he can claim an invalidity pension, presuming that he contributed to the pension scheme for at least 12 months.
If he is not permanently incapable of work because of his ill health, then he should seek employment and continue to build up his contribution record by continuing to contribute to the national pension scheme.
He might be able to find a job with light duties or start an income-generating project of his own.
A minimum of 120 months of contributions are required to be eligible for a pension. If contributions have been made for less than that then the retirement benefit on reaching 60 or more would be a single lump sum retirement grant.
How much our correspondent will receive when he is 60 will depend on how long he has worked and what his insurable income was in his last job.
If he successfully applies for an invalidity pension, then he will receive that pension until he reaches the age of 60, unless his situation changes and he becomes once more capable of working, in which case he should advise NSSA and the invalidity pension will cease.
Once he turns 60 the invalidity pension will be converted to a retirement pension. If the invalidity pension is higher than the minimum retirement pension he would have been entitled to, then he will continue to receive as a retirement pension the same amount that he was receiving as invalidity pension.
The minimum retirement pension is US$60. This is paid to those whose pension, based on their contribution period and insurable income on retirement, would come to US$60 or less. The minimum invalidity pension is US$30.
The retirement benefit is either a monthly pension or a single lump sum grant, depending on the contribution period.
The same is true of the invalidity benefit, although the contribution period needed for invalidity benefit is only 12 months, while the contribution period for a retirement pension is 120 months.
A person receiving an invalidity pension will still have that benefit converted to a retirement pension on reaching 60 years of age, even if he or she has not contributed for the minimum 10 years that would normally be required for a retirement pension.
If he or she was receiving the minimum invalidity pension, which is currently US$30, then he or she would, after turning 60, start receiving the minimum retirement pension, which is currently US$60.
Talking Social Security is published weekly by the National Social Security Authority as a public service. There is also a weekly radio programme, PaMheponeNssa/Emoyeni le NSSA, discussing social security issues at 6.50pm every Thursday on Radio Zimbabwe and every Friday on National FM. There is another social security programme on Star FM on Wednesdays at 5.30pm. Readers can e-mail issues they would like dealt with in this column to [email protected] or text them to 0772-307913. Those with individual queries should contact their local NSSA office or telephone NSSA on (04) 706517-8 or 706523-5.
Online Reporter