AMBROSE: My name is Ambrose. I have my RSA with Leadway Pensure as my PFA. I have a private company and I applied for my pension in April, this year. I visited PenCom Benin office and filled in the form.
Since then, I have remained in touch with the office and my account agent by phone call, Whatsapp and email.
When I filled the form, the last statement sent to me by email stated that my RSA balance was N440,000. This was confirmed by the Benin office and I was told that all my balance will be paid lump sum as it was below N550,000 which is the maximum amount that is paid in whole at once.
I followed up my application with the Benin office and during one of my calls I was informed that it has been discovered that my RSA balance was more than N550,000 and so I will be paid a lump sum and a monthly pension. That a template detailing the payments will be sent to me to download, print and sign so that the payment can be made. The promised template was sent to me by Whatsapp last Friday. In summary, it puts my balance at N576,000, my lump sum payment at N147,000 and my monthly pension at N4,000.
I called both my agent and the Benin office to protest the over N400,000 retained, out of which a monthly pension of N4,000 will be paid telling them that the portion retained was too high and that N4,000 pension makes the entire amount valueless as N4,000 cannot buy anything of significance whereas I know what to do with my N550,000 or N576,000 if released to create value for myself.
Both staff members of Leadway Pensure did not see anything useful in what I have said and insisted that is how my contribution will be released. I will appreciate if you can on my behalf intervene with the company by investigating how suddenly, they added N136,000 to the initial balance of N440,000 as shown in my last statement of account which was in August, this year.
Intervene on my behalf so that I can be paid what is due to me and put my contribution in my hands for better economic use.
Thank you.
PENCOM: Unfortunately, Mr. Asemokha’s RSA balance cannot be paid to him en bloc because his current RSA balance is above N550,000. Where the RSA balance is higher than N550,000, and cannot fund a programmed withdrawal for the average period, the balance in the RSA shall be spread over the average period for monthly programmed withdrawal irrespective of whether or not such periodic amount is up to 50 per cent of the retiree’s last emolument.
JOEL: My name is Joel. I complained about my unpaid pension to my PFA since March 6, 2020 but I am yet to be paid. My PFA is indeed a terrible. After I complained to them about my application being unnecessarily delayed, I got a text message from them on April 20, 2020 saying that my application has been sent to PenCom for approval. Since then, nothing good came from them. I regret choosing this PFA. What should I do now? Kindly help me.
PFA (ANNONYMOUS): With respect to Mr. Joel’s complaint on the delay in processing his benefits application, we would like to clarify that his programmed withdrawal application was received on Friday, March 6, 2020. While processing his application, the COVID-19 pandemic lockdown started and processing was halted due to the restrictions on movement. However, as soon as operations commenced on April 2020, his application as well as that of other clients affected by the lockdown, were processed to the PenCom for payment approval. Please note that payment was made to his bank account on May 14, 2020 upon receipt of PenCom’s approval. We regret the inconvenience experienced by the client. We have also reached out to him via his registered email address to tender our apologies.
ANNONYMOUS: I want to remain annonymous. My PFA is Stanbic IBTC. My issue is that when I claimed 25 per cent, I was given a form to fill where they requested for date of birth which I filled. They then told me that what I filled is different from what they have in their record. They told me that for them to correct it, I should bring evidence and they also wrote my last employer. My employer responded and verified my correct date of birth. Since then, I thought they had done the correction but to my surprise, I received an SMS last year, stating the wrong date of birth, showing that they have not corrected it. Kindly help me so they can the change.
STANBIC IBTC PENSION: The client filled a date of birth on his account opening form and this was captured accordingly on our records. He engaged us on August 17, 2015 for the correction of his date of birth, and the requisite list of documents was provided to him.
We equally engaged his employer for the letter of confirmation of his date of birth, a document also required for this purpose. The letter of confirmation was received from his employer on August 27, 2015. We await additional validation documents requested from the client to enable us complete the update process.
We regret the inconvenience experienced by the client and have reached out to him via his mobile number to apologies as well as request for the outstanding documents (National Identity Number and completed Date of Birth form). Please be assured that his request will be resolved as soon as we receive the documents outstanding.
Leave a Reply