The Social Security and National Insurance Trust (SSNIT) Management has been urged to assess its operations in order to benefit pensioners more than they are already getting.
Mashoud Abdallah, Director of the Africa Centre for Retirement Research, who made the appeal, highlighted that the number of pensioners visiting hospitals for medical care has recently grown.
This, he claims, is already hurting the economic situation of pensioners, and SSNIT must reconsider its activities to support them.
Mr. Abdallah was addressing on TV3 on the Trust’s adjustment of the 2022 pension.
Pensioners are projected to earn a 10% increase under the proposed changes.
According to the Trust, all retirees would get a raise equivalent to or more than the planned inflation rate for 2022.
The expected pension spending for 2022 is GH3.5 billion.
SSNIT said in its Indexation of Pensions 2022 report that on Tuesday, January 11 that “Lowest earning pensioners will get an indexation rate of 10.83%.”
“Management of the Trust will continue to work hard to guarantee positive annual indexation for pensioners bearing in mind the long-term sustainability of the Scheme,” SSNIT said.
“The Trust remains committed to paying all legitimate benefits accurately and timeously,” it added.
According to Mr. Abdallah, this change does not represent what pensioners now need.
“I have heard media houses reporting that SSNIT has increased pension by 10 percent. No, that is not it. we have to look at the fix rate and the flat amount. It is best to say that SSNIT has increased monthly pension by 9.68 percent plus a flat amount of GHS3.44.
“There have been increased hospital visitation by pensioners and that adds additional cost to the already high budget. I would have expected that the minimum pension will go up especially when you bring in the element of how the spate of prices increases in the economy.
“So if you take the inflation and the development of the inflation over the years you will realize that it is basically unacceptable for you to keep a minimum pension of 300 for four years.”
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SOURCE: 3NEWS
