In case of death, what happens to retirement benefits? What you need to know.
Accessing retirement benefits upon death by the dependent relatives of the deceased may sometimes be tricky especially when they don’t know what is required. This does not only affect beneficiaries of retirees who are saving with the mandatory schemes but also those saving with the occupational schemes.
Some people don’t disclose the saving schemes that hold their retirement benefits, with their families or their next of kin. This has left beneficiaries struggling to access the retiree’s benefits after death.
In this regard, we had an exclusive interview with Namugga Hannah, a Legal Officer at Uganda Retirement Benefits Regulatory Authority (URBRA), who shades light on the processes gone, through to access retirement benefits of the deceased.
“The law is very clear, there are letters that are required for a person to access benefits from both the occupational scheme and the mandatory scheme, they include; letters of administration, death certificate, letters of appointment, letters of confirmation. These letters help us to apply for the benefits from the requisite channels.” said Namugga.
Namugga says, “Schemes should advise their members to nominate beneficiaries to represent them as they wish to collect their benefits in case of death.”
Namugga also enlighten that the pension has been decentralized, a beneficiary can now access their pension at the requisite channel at the district or at their place where they last worked. Therefore Pension schemes have a task to advise their members on how to acquire their retirement benefits.
“URBRA offers support of advocating for the beneficiaries who are unaware of what to do, we guide the beneficiary on how to obtain the required documents, take them to the district or their pension schemes to solicit for their benefits. If those documents are missing, there is no way the beneficiary will get their retirement benefits. So they are crucial.” Said Namugga.
The total number of savers as of 2022-2023 are over 3million in all the schemes in the country including the mandatory schemes such as Public Service Schemes and the Voluntary Service Schemes such as occupational schemes and the Insurance Schemes according to URBRA’s Retirement Benefits Sector Annual Report of 2022-2023.
Accessing retirement benefits after death may be quite challenging, but also accessing savings with in the Schemes has become a puzzle to solve.
Annet (not real names) claims to have been saving with an insurance company, but she didn’t get enough information about their retirement policy, and it is now affecting her on reclaiming her savings from the insurance.
Lydia Mirembe, Corporate and Public Affairs, Uganda Retirement Benefits Regulatory Authority (URBRA) advises savers to work with professionals, whose profession is based in retirement benefits so as to guide on how to save and access retirement savings. “When joining a retirement scheme, pay attention to their qualification requirements like a license to ensure their credibility, don’t fall for any organization or individuals claiming to be retirement schemes.” Said Mirembe.
In formal sector, saving for retirement is mandatory, each employer is tasked to contribute a percentage for their employees in a mandatory scheme which is National Social Security Fund (NSSF). Some employees face a challenge of not knowing how much savings they possess and usually don’t follow up until they are in need of the funds.
Namugga says, “The Human Resource personnel at the district helps in notifying a beneficiary of how much they have as retirement benefits. Our liaison also guide them and calculate a person’s benefits so as to know how much they are receiving. In case of under payment, we come in for assistance.”
The supervisory actions of URBRA has ably recovered over UGX 26 billion that members would have lost on account of unpaid benefits, un remitted contributions and misappropriation of members’ funds. In case of any complaint, reach out to URBRA via their website and submit in a complaint regarding Retirement savings.
