Help retirement funds pay you your unclaimed benefits, say fund actuaries

Retirement fund actuaries have called on eligible people to come forward for their share of R47.3bn in unclaimed pension money.

The unclaimed pension benefits belong to nearly 5-million members, mostly former mineworkers, around SA and the Sadc region. 

The key reason for funds not being claimed is that many workers changed jobs without updating their personal information, says the Financial Sector Conduct Authority. Fund administrators also had poor records on members. These members worked on mines as far back as 1980s before the digital age.

Jeanine Astrup, a consulting actuary and member of the Actuarial Society of SA Retirement Matters Committee, said most retirement funds and their administrators were working with tracing agents to whittle down unclaimed assets. But the effort came at the significant cost to retirement funds, Astrup said in a statement this week.

While retirement fund trustees and administrators could probably do more to unite former members and beneficiaries with their unclaimed benefits, Astrup said individuals also have an obligation to ensure that they are traceable.

According to Astrup, there are several steps former retirement fund members and their beneficiaries can take to make it easier for retirement funds to unite unclaimed benefits with their rightful owners.

• Members of defined benefit funds pre-2004

Astrup said that a portion of unclaimed retirement fund benefits was generated by defined benefit funds that at some point declared a surplus in terms of surplus apportionment legislation to members who left these funds after 1980, but where trustees could not  trace former employees entitled to a share of the surplus.

“Many unclaimed surplus benefits date back to the years preceding the digital age,” she said.

• Learn to differentiate between legitimate approaches and scams

“With all the scams out there, it is no surprise that members are sceptical when out of the blue they receive a phone call or email advising them that the employer they left five, 10 or even 20 years ago would like to pay them money,” said Astrup.

She said that dismissing legitimate approaches by tracing agents makes it very difficult for retirement funds to unite people with their benefits. 

In an effort to locate the beneficiaries, the FSCA has created an unclaimed benefit search engine for individuals who did not get a benefit payout when they left employment.

Click here to view the central database to claim.

mahlangua@businesslive.co.za