Miners in dark on how to claim their payouts: Many not told what is due to them

Mine bosses and their pension fund managers are doing very little to tell their former mineworkers, who made them super-rich, how to access their pension funds.

The Financial Services Board (FSB), the state regulatory body responsible for the non-banking financial services industry, said in a statement released by pensions enforcement and surveillance head, Corlia Buitendag, that many employers were also not providing members with sufficient fund information, especially what was due to them in hard cash. But the board also blamed workers for not making proper follow-ups to claim their money from their former employers and provident fund administrators.

The board provided a list of failures that have allowed pension funds to bulge while beneficiaries starve.

lFailure by members to provide the fund with their or their beneficiaries’ updated contact details;

lFailure by employers to provide funds or administrators with complete details of fund members;

lMany employers and/or funds do not provide members with sufficient fund information such as their entitlement to a withdrawal benefit if they resign, are dismissed or retrenched and how to claim a benefit;

lPoor administration by funds or administrators which in some cases have ceased to exist;

lFailure by fund members to inform dependants of benefits if they die while in service; and

lFailure by boards of funds to take all reasonable steps to trace and pay those entitled to benefits.

The FSB said a proposal was made in 2004 to provide for the establishment of a central unclaimed benefit fund but it never came to fruition. — bonganif@

dispatch.co.za