OVER 27 600 COULD BE REMOVED FROM GOVT’S ELDERLY GRANT

EZULWINI – There could be a proposal to remove over 27 600 senior citizens from government’s elderly grant.

These are the elderly who are beneficiaries of other retirement funds. The talks about the proposal or a policy to eliminate the 27 621 beneficiaries of the government elderly grant emanated from a workshop on Social Security Inquiry (SSI) held at the Happy Valley Hotel in Ezulwini last week. The workshop was organised by the Ministry of Labour and Social Security and was sponsored by the Eswatini National Provident Fund (ENPF) and the International Labour Organisation (ILO). The aim of the workshop was to assess the country’s social security status to identify gaps and inform policies that are relevant options to fill the gaps that may include extension of coverage, increased benefits and reduce current limitations.

The workshop with the data that had been collected from the existing social security, schemes also gave a picture of how the country was performing in terms of social protection.
It brought together stakeholders of social security, which included employers, workers government, as well as social security providers, among others. During the workshop, the consultant, Nokwazi Mathabela, who was tasked with compiling data from all social security protection programmes from government, private sector and informal sector among the other types of social protection, gave a picture of statutory retirement funds in Eswatini.  She presented that the country had over 112 registered local and international statutory retirement funds, of which 71 of them were locally registered while 41 were international funds. Mathabela told the attendees that data showed that 27 621 elderly people in the country were receiving pension from several pension funds and these included the Public Service Pension Fund (PSPF) received among others.

Funds

It got interesting when Mathabela pointed about that the very same 27 621 elderly people were also receiving the government elderly grant on top  of the one they get from their respective retirement funds. The government elderly grant is under the portfolio of the Deputy Prime Minister’s (DPM) office. Mathabela also noted that the data she received from government ministries showed that there were about 81 000 elderly people in the country; these were individuals above the age of 60. “This means if all 81 755 are receiving elderly grants, 34 per cent of them, which is the 27 621, receive their own insurances and might be on DPM’s office elderly grants,” she said. Director of Social Security in the Ministry of Labour and Social Security Magwabane Mdluli said if the 27 621 were also getting the government grant, they would be successful to address the ‘double dipping’ of the government social protection fund.

Challenges

Mdluli stated that the figures were putting them as a ministry in a good light to assist government manage the fiscal challenges. He noted that close to E200 million came from the fiscus to pay the 27 000 elderly people who already are beneficiaries of retirement schemes.

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