GOVT LAUNCHES ELDERLY FUNERAL COVER, PARTNERS WITH MVA

MBABANE – Government has officially launched the much awaited elderly funeral cover.

The cover was launched yesterday by the deputy prime minister’s (DPM) office Principal Secretary (PS) Melusi Masuku during a press conference. Masuku announced that some elderly grant beneficiaries who will pass away would be covered under the government funeral cover. The senior citizens will be covered for E3 000.

He explained that the DPM’s Office partnered with the Sincephetelo Motor Vehicle Accident Fund (SMVAF) in this exercise. However, not all senior citizens qualify for the government funeral cover. Masuku explained that not all elderly would automatically qualify for the funeral cover. He said only the needy would be covered. The PS said from the passing on of an elderly person, a selected family member would be expected to file an application through the regional social welfare centres.

An assessment will then be conducted which will determine whether the deceased elderly person deserved to be covered by the government funeral cover or not. “Those who already have funeral policies with other insurance companies will not benefit from government’s cover,” he said. Adding, Masuku said their system was able to detect whether the deceased elderly person was indeed a beneficiary of other funeral policies. He said the claims would be paid within 24 hours from the time of lodging, excluding weekends and public holidays.

Further, the PS said the reason government partnered with MVA was because the parastatal already had an up and running system which could speed up the payment process, rather than starting a new one. He said the payouts would be through MTN mobile money and bank accounts.

Success

Meanwhile, MVA Chief Executive Officer David Myeni said they were committed to make the exercise a success. Myeni said already they had a system that processes funeral covers of people who died from road accidents. For that reason, the CEO said absorbing the elderly funeral cover would not be a burden to them. “We commit to assist the DPM’s Office in this massive exercise for the benefit of emaSwati,” he said.

The elderly funeral cover was announced last year by His Majesty King Mswati III during the opening of the fourth session of the 11th Parliament. Minister of Finance Neal Rijkenberg announced government’s budget of E20 per month, which would go towards the elderly funeral cover.Last year, the country had 75 489 registered elderly people. This translated to around E15 million that would be spent by government monthly for the funeral cover.

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