The Government Institutions Pension Fund (GIPF) has revealed that it is holding millions of Namibia dollars in unclaimed pension and death benefits owed to former members.
These members, according to the Fund, left their employment due to retirement, resignation, ill-health, disability, or retrenchment, but have not yet claimed their benefits.
“The Fund has millions in what is referred to as unclaimed benefits. Every staff member of a participating employer from all Government Offices, Ministries and Agencies as well as participating state-owned entities and Regional and Village Councils are entitled to receive pension benefits at the time when they leave employment and cease to be a member of the GIPF. These benefits are guaranteed as per the rules of the Fund and therefore, are paid out to members once a benefit claim is received by GIPF with all relevant supporting documents,” GIPF Manager for Marketing Services Amos Kambonde said.
He also revealed that the Fund has an undisclosed amount from unclaimed death benefits.
“In the same vein, GIPF has a list of death claims that are yet to be claimed. For some death benefit claims, the Fund is waiting for beneficiaries of the deceased member to come forward and submit the required documents in order for the benefits to be paid out,” Kambonde said.
He attributed the accumulated unclaimed benefits to the failure of employers and beneficiaries to submit the prerequisite paperwork.
“At times, however, members and HR officers of participating employers of the GIPF do not complete the relevant claim forms by the time a member leaves service. Consequently, these benefits remain with GIPF as unclaimed benefits,” he explained.
Kambonde said to address this issue, GIPF has introduced a self-service help tab on its website to assist beneficiaries.
“This is aimed at making it easy for members to search for their names on the site to determine whether they indeed appear on the published lists of the unclaimed benefits. GIPF is thus urging all former members to visit the GIPF website to check whether your names appear on the list of unclaimed benefits on the website,” he said.
The Fund is a statutory pension body which provides guaranteed pension and related benefits to over 98,623 civil servants, and employees of participating employers in Namibia.
