Figures obtained from the National Pension Commission revealed that the sacked workers, who could not secure another gainful employment, withdrew a quarter of the balance in their pension accounts as of the end of February, 2016.
Records revealed that more job losers are looking up to their pension accounts as their last financial hope, which is making them unable to wait till retirement stage before touching their savings.
The figures obtained from PenCom revealed that at the end of 2013 financial period, only 36,369 sacked workers with N29.8bn as their RSA balance in both the public and private sector withdrew N7.4bn from their various PFAs.
In this period, workers who resigned from their works for various reasons were not allowed to access these funds. Only those who could produce their sack letters from their employers and had waited for at least six months without getting another job were allowed to apply for a quarter of their RSA balance.
After the Pension Reform Act was amended in 2014, the law allowed those who also resigned to access these funds after waiting for four months.
Section 7 (2) of the PRA 2014 allows a worker who voluntarily retires, resigns or was disengaged from employment to access 25 per cent of his RSA if he is unable to get another job after four months.
By the end of 2014, the number of contributors who withdrew from their RSA rose to 96,708. Of these workers, 92,245 were from the private sector while 4,463 were public workers. With a total contribution of N126.4bn in their pension accounts, they withdrew N31.6bn at the end of 2014.
No fewer than 104,161 workers, who contributed about N135.6bn in the CPS, withdrew N33.9bn from the savings in their RSA as of the end of March last year.
The Director-General, PenCom, Mrs. Chinelo Anohu-Amazu, said approval was granted for payment to RSA holders under the age of 50 years that were disengaged from work and were unable to secure another job within four months of disengagement.
Meanwhile, civil servants in most states of the federation have expressed their frustration to meet their basic needs.
Many states of the federation still owe the salaries of their workers for between three and six months.
The workers said they had been finding it difficult to get loans and food items on credit from creditors due to their inability to pay back previous debts.
It was also gathered that cooperative societies that used to rely on deductions from workers’ salaries are either folded up or struggling to survive.
Many of the cooperative societies have also had their funds drawn out by unpaid civil servants.
It is traditional for civil servants to buy food items and other goods on credit pending when their salaries are paid.
Some workers who are still hoping to get food items and other goods on credit are also being denied by traders.
A 55-year-old civil servant in Imo State, who simply identified herself as Mrs. Akambugha, said her relation, who was financially helpful in the past, had told her to seek assistance elsewhere.
A civil servant with the state Ministry of Health, Mrs. Juliet Aneke, said she had been hiding from her creditors to avoid being embarrassed.
Teachers under the Bauchi State Universal Basic Education Board were last paid salaries in December 2015.
A teacher in a Government Junior Secondary School in the state, who spoke on condition of anonymity, also said he and some of his colleagues had been hiding from their creditors.
He said, “I have been borrowing money and it has got to a point that I can no longer continue to borrow,” he said, adding, “A woman has a provision store opposite our school, and anytime she sees any of the school’s teachers in front of her shop now, she shouts ‘I am not selling if you are buying on credit.”
The Ondo State Government owes its workers three months’ salary arrears.
One of the workers, who identified himself as Mr. Akinnuwa, also confirmed that traders had been refusing to sell items to them on credit because of their inability to pay previous debt.
The situation is the same in Delta State as some civil servants told one of our correspondents that they had no idea of where else to seek financial assistance.
A creditor that engages in money lending, Amaka Josephine & Co., said over N700, 000 was loaned out to civil servants in the state and that those who could not keep to the agreements had lost their properties to him.
Civil servants in Osun State are also facing a hard time following their irregular and slashed salaries.
A teacher, Mrs. Temitope Akinola, said the state civil servants had yet to be paid any salary this year and that her landlord was getting more impatient with her over the delay in paying her house rent.
A trader in Ekiti State, who identified herself as Mrs. Aregbesola, said she stopped selling on credit to civil servants because she had yet to be paid previous debts.
Some civil servants in Kwara State told that they were being owed between two and four months’ salary arrears.
Some of them said their creditors had described them as non credit-worthy.
No comments:
Post a Comment