By Patrick Biddah
The Social Security and National Insurance Trust (SSNIT) has allayed the fears of pensioners, saying there is nothing to worry about concerning the 2023 ILO valuation report that, has triggered some panic among both contributors and pensioners.
According to the scheme, although aspects of the report predict a depletion of the funds in 2036, it is not cast in iron and that it is something they knew about before the report came out.
Addressing a press conference on Monday, April 29, 2024, the Chief Actuary at SSNIT. Mr Joseph Poku, revealed that there have been similar reports of depletion in the past, but it has not materialised due to the measure the scheme has put in place to curtail it.
Mr Poku, therefore made reference to a 2011, 2014 and 2017 reports, all of which he said predicted doom, but nothing has happened to the scheme and has never defaulted in its payments to pensioners till date.
In the 2011 Actuary report, Mr Poku, said there was an alert of depletion of the scheme’s funds in 2019, but that year has passed and the scheme is still running.
According to him, measures have been put in place to make the scheme robust and therefore gives no cause for alarm.
For example, he said technology has made it possible for them to clean the payroll of the scheme of ghost names and has saved them Ghc 519million.
Additionally, he said the funding gap of the scheme which remained a challenge has been sealed with the scheme’s investment in not only the completion of the affordable housing, but also its sales and other interventions in investments.
One of such interventios, Mr Poku, mentioned is the investment in the asset allocation policy and the introduction of punishment for defaulters which he noted have all gone a long way to sustaining the scheme and not grinding it to a halt.
In all of these, however, he said the contribution of workers continue to be the backbone of the scheme, because it serves as a revolving fund for the payment of pensioners.
