Unremitted pensions reach ZW$3billion

Harare (New Ziana) – The Insurance and Pension Commission (Ipec) says it will soon publish a list of pension schemes that are not remitting contributions as arrears topped ZW$3 billion by the end of June this year.

In a statement to mark the International Pensions Awareness Day, Ipec also expressed concern at the large amount of unclaimed pension benefits.

“Ipec is concerned with the high levels of unremitted pension contributions which stood at ZW$3.05 billion as at 30 June, 2021. Failure to remit contributions results in members receiving no or reduced pensions as the pension fund would not have received the contributions,” read part of the statement.

“The commission will be publishing the list of pension funds in contribution arrears.”

Ipec urged pension scheme members to regularly check whether their employers were remitting contributions to their pension funds.

“Another area of concern to the commission is unclaimed pension benefits to the tune of ZW$1.09 billion as at 30 June, 2021. The commission encourages pensioners who have not claimed their pension benefits to use the pension awareness Day to contact their pension funds directly.”

Meanwhile, Ipec said it continued strengthening its oversight role to ensure the interests of pensioners were protected.

It said measures that it recently adopted to strengthen its oversight role include regulating expenses of pension funds, reviewing investment guidelines and legacy products in the market to make them relevant in the obtaining macro-economic environment and re-registration of pension rules to strengthen provisions on member protection, governance and accountability.

“As the pension’s regulator, IPEC acknowledges that confidence in the pension sector is arguably at its lowest owing to loss of insurance and pension values due to hyperinflation and the unintended consequences of the 2009 and 2019 monetary reforms,” it said.

“The commission is implementing measures to mitigate the effects of these losses in line with its statutory mandate of protecting the interests of policy holders and pension scheme members.”

New Ziana