SSNIT withholds pension funds of 19,100 over failure to do biometric authentication

Social Security and National Insurance Trust (SSNIT) has retained GH¢480 million, representing funds for 19,100 pensioners who have not undergone biometric authentication.

The Director-General of SSNIT, Dr. John Ofori-Tenkorang, revealed this information during a press conference in Accra, stating that SSNIT is prepared to reimburse the funds when those individuals comply with the biometric authentication process.

He emphasised that SSNIT's pension scheme obligates the organisation to continue pension payments until the pensioner's demise.

Death

He said if a person passed away before the age of 72 for those under PNDC Law 247 and 75 for those under the National Pensions Act, 2008 (Act 766), the trust had to pay some money to his or her survivors.

“But if you live beyond those years, then we don’t have to pay anything to your survivors and every month, our operation is that we pay monies directly into your bank account.

“So what we need to do is make sure that we find a way to ascertain that we are actually paying legitimate pensioners. So we asked our cherished pensioners every year to let us know that they are alive,” he said.

That, the SSNIT boss said, was done by asking them to report to the SSNIT officer to biometrically authenticate them and that it was mindful of the fact that there were people who might not have mobility challenges and then could not be able to visit a SSNIT office.

Arrangements

In view of that, he said, there were alternative arrangements where “if you call us we would come to where you are and we would biometrically authenticate you”.

He said for people who had not come to authenticate themselves, “whose money we have withheld, we have about GH¢480 million so far”.

“There’s GH¢480 million that we could have paid out that we have not paid.

“This is because those people to whom it belongs have not come back to tell us that they are alive. So that is what we call ghost pensions,” he emphasised, and “as and when they resurrect, we stand ready to pay them,” he said.

Background

In 2014, participants in the SSNIT pension scheme, including retirees, were instructed to undergo biometric registration. This phased exercise, conducted in collaboration with employers, aimed to collect biometric data from existing contributors and generate 13 alphanumeric social security numbers for those with eight-digit numbers.

Additionally, the project sought to gather additional information on existing policyholders of the National Health Insurance Scheme (NHIS) and individuals registered with the National Identification Authority (NIA).

The biometric data collected would facilitate swift and straightforward verification of the identities of SSNIT contributors in the future.

SSNIT, a statutory public Trust established under the National Pensions Act, 2008 Act 766, is entrusted with administering Ghana's Basic National Social Security Scheme. Its mandate includes overseeing the First Tier of the Three-Tier Pension Scheme, making it the largest non-bank financial institution in Ghana.

The Trust's primary responsibility is to replace a portion of lost income for Ghanaian workers due to Old Age, Invalidity, or Death, with dependents receiving lump-sum payments. It is also tasked with providing Emigration benefits to non-Ghanaian members leaving Ghana permanently.

Established in 1972 under NRCD 127 to administer the National Social Security Scheme, SSNIT originally operated as a Provident Fund Scheme. In 1991, it transitioned into a Social Insurance Pension Scheme governed by PNDC Law 247.

Subsequently, Act 766 of 2008 reformed the pension scheme in Ghana, replacing all existing schemes, including Cap 30. In 2014, the National Pensions (Amendment) Act 883 further modified certain provisions of Act 766.