adminTHE spouse of a deceased national pension fund contributor or retirement or invalidity pensioner is normally entitled to a survivor’s benefit, as are any dependent children under the age of 18 or, if still in fulltime education, 25.
However in the case of the spouse of a pensioner, the marriage must have been contracted before the contributor retired or became entitled to an invalidity pension.
NSSA must obviously be satisfied that the spouse was indeed married to the contributor or pensioner, whether it was under one of the country’s Marriage Acts, an unregistered customary marriage or even a common law marriage, where the contributor and a partner were simply living together as man and wife.
Where the marriage is a registered marriage, the spouse would need to produce the marriage certificate in support of his or her claim.
If it is an unregistered marriage then an affidavit would need to be produced confirming, in the case of an unregistered customary marriage, details of the customary marriage or, where a couple were simply cohabiting without having gone through any marriage process, how long they had been living together as man and wife and whether there were any children from their union.
Where a person was married under the Marriage Act (Chapter 5.11) only one spouse would be expected to make a claim, since this Marriage Act provides for only monogamous marriages.
The spouse of a deceased contributor to the national pension scheme who was married to the contributor under this Act is entitled to receive a survivor’s benefit, unless he or she had been divorced. A divorced spouse would not be entitled to the benefit.
A man married under the Customary Marriage Act (Chapter 5.07) is able to contract more than one marriage. If there is more than one spouse married under this Act, then, if the contributor to the pension scheme dies, the survivor’s benefit to which a spouse is entitled would be equally divided between them.
The same would be true of a number of spouses married customarily to the same contributor to the national pension scheme without having registered their marriages under the Customary Marriage Act. The survivor’s benefit would be shared among them.
Where a man contracted one or more customary marriages, whether registered under the Customary Marriage Act or not, and then went on to contract a marriage under the Marriage Act (Chapter 5.11), all spouses would be considered equally for the survivor’s benefit, which would be shared equally between/among them.
While the Marriage Act provides for monogamous marriages, there are instances where a man married under the Customary Marriage Act proceeds to marry under Chapter 5.11, fraudulently recording his prior status as that of a bachelor. In such a case NSSA does not discriminate against the spouses. All are treated equally with the survivor’s benefit being equally divided between/among them.
The survivor’s benefit for children is paid to all children of a deceased contributor who are under the age of 18 or, if in full time education, under the age of 25. If a child is unable, as a result of a permanent disability, to support himself or herself, then the survivor’s benefit may continue regardless of the child’s age.
The children’s benefit is a single allowance to cover all of them, no matter how many they may be. If the children are from different spouses, then the children’s payment is shared equally between/among those households.
Whether the survivor’s benefit is a once only grant or a monthly pension depends on what the deceased contributor would have been entitled to.
Normally the survivor’s benefit for the spouse or spouses is 40 percent of the benefit the contributor would have been entitled to. The benefit for the children is also 40 percent. That means that the total benefit for spouses and children combined comes to 80 percent of what the contributor would have been entitled to.
However, the minimum survivor’s pension is $30, which is 50 percent of the minimum retirement pension. For spouse(s) and children combined that would be 100 percent.
Someone recently asked at what age a child ceases to qualify for a survivor’s benefit. The answer is when the child reaches the age of 18 or, if still in full time education, 25.
However, because the allowance is normally paid to the children’s parent or guardian and is the same amount regardless of the number of children, it only ceases when the youngest child in a household has reached the age of 18 or, if still in full time education, 25.
As already mentioned, it may continue beyond those ages if there is a child with a disability that renders him or her incapable of supporting himself or herself.
Someone wrote recently that his/her father had been receiving a pension from NSSA and had died. His/her mother was already dead. He/she was 25 and there were no children below the age of 25. “Please help me,” this person wrote.
The survivor’s pension is only intended to assist those who were financially dependent on the deceased contributor or pensioner. A spouse is always presumed to be a dependent. Children are considered dependent only until they become adults at the age of 18 or, if still in full time education, 25.
If there is no surviving spouse and no surviving children, then other relatives who were dependent on the deceased contributor such as, for instance parents, may be eligible for the survivor’s pension but only if they were registered with NSSA as dependents and if they can satisfy NSSA they were in fact dependent on the deceased person.
l Talking Social Security is published weekly by the National Social Security Authority as a public service. There is also a weekly radio programme on social security, PaMhepo neNSSA/Emoyeni le NSSA, at 6.50 pm every Thursday on Radio Zimbabwe and Friday on National FM. 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) 706523/5, 706545/9, or 799030/1.
Online Reporter