SWAZIMED BENEFITS FROM UNCLAIMED MONEYS

MBABANE – Ignorant SwaziMed clients are losing cash in unclaimed bonuses worth 20 per cent of their subscriptions each year.

This is because the medical aid company does not automatically refund its deserving clients who have not written to them and specifically requested that they be refunded their subscriptions.
According to the SwaziMed brochure, “Members on high, standard and medium option from January to December will be allowed to write a letter to claim 20 per cent incentive bonus for the previous year before the end of March of the following year.

“To qualify for the bonus, members should have cleared all contribution arrears by March of the following year. Payment will be between June and October.”
However, this is not highlighted to clients by the organisation and those that qualify are not informed and miss out on the chance to be refunded should they not make a written application for their refund.
Instead, it has been established that Swazi Med benefits from the unclaimed monies belonging to their clients through the No/low claims bonus.

As such, the fund has been accused of being dishonest in not automatically refunding clients that do not claimed for the duration of that particular year.
 The Times SUNDAY sought comment from Peter Simelane; SwaziMed’s Principal Officer, who confirmed that the fund had such a bonus that was available to clients as stipulated by the brochure.
He also conceded the fact that those who have ever benefitted from the bonus were those who have submitted letters to the company requesting for their bonuses.
Simelane explained that the reason they demanded letters from the clients was in order to comply with the Swaziland Revenue Authority (SRA).

“Without the letters, SRA demands that the bonus be taxed from the source which is SwaziMed, but after receiving the letter from the client claiming the bonus, it remains with the client to declare it with SRA,” Simelane said.
The Principal Officer also pointed out that they have in the past tried to make every client aware that there was such a benefit because it was one of their draw cards towards clients.
He also mentioned that the company has gone as far as using media houses to communicate such.

He, however, agreed that it was true that no matter how efficiently one may try to communicate a message, there will be some who may not capture it.
“Money that is not claimed remains with the fund for the benefit of other clients. This is not a profit-making fund hence when such money is not claimed from the fund it benefits others.”
Simelane however did not explain how those clients benefitted from the unclaimed funds of other clients.

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