$30 Million Lying Idle In Unclaimed Pensions
An Insurance and Pensions Commission (Ipec) has confirmed that about $30 million is lying idle in unclaimed pensions as close to 50 000 pensioners have not been collecting their monthly pension payouts. The number has since gone up from the $25 million that was lying idle in the first quarter of the year after 24 000 pensioners failed to collect their pension payouts.
Lloyd Gumbo Ipec public relations officer said that the insurance sector regulator was now working on publishing a list of the beneficiaries adding a system to access the pension’s database was also being developed. According to Gumbo some of the unclaimed funds belong to immigrant pensioners who have since gone back to their home countries.
Said Gumbo:
As Ipec we have requested a list of pension fund beneficiaries who have not been claiming their funds or their money. We have requested the list and have since been given some of the names but not all of them. They are still compiling so what we intend to do is to make it easy for these beneficiaries to be able to access or know that they have benefits that they have not claimed. We intend to publish the names of all the people who have not claimed their dues. The figure has gone up. These people are now almost 50 000, who have not been claiming their money which amounts to about $30 million which has not been claimed. The money is put into what is known as a Guardian Fund then eventually used for national infrastructure development projects if five years lapse without the money being claimed. The most common case is with Malawian and Mozambique nationals who went back to their home countries. The Mining Industry Pension Fund has even followed some to their countries so that they can come back and claim their pensions.In other instances there are Zimbabwean employees who have even forgotten about the pensions
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