The Social Security National Insurance Trust (SSNIT) in collaboration with the Trade Union Congress (TUC) today, June 12 organised a regional forum in Tema to discuss issues related to pensions, benefit computation among others.

The forum being the eight edition forms part of the Trust's project to demystify the myth surrounding computation of benefits and addressing challenges faced by its beneficiaries.

Speaking at the forum,John Ofori Tenkorang, Director General SSNIT said, “there are no myths surrounding benefits computation and that pensions are a direct reflection of salaries on which contributions were paid”

According to him, “With the SSNIT Pension Scheme, what you put in is what you get” he stressed

Explaining further, the Director General said, sustainability of the SSNIT Scheme was very key. Adding that one of the ways of sustaining the Scheme was through investments.

“The financing system of the scheme is based on the partial funding approach where contributions from workers and employers alone are not adequate to pay benefits and other related costs. SSNIT relies on investment income to supplement the payments of benefits. It is therefore imperative that we make sound investments that we can fall on to top up shortfalls in contributions. The strategies adopted to improve investments include rebalancing investment portfolio by increasing investments in Fixed Income, enhancing performance of the commercial property portfolio and improving non-performing loan book through restructuring of underlying investee companies” adding that “We also decreased equity exposure by exiting or restructuring non-performing investments, improved performance of investee companies through better corporate governance and roll out of corporate targets and completing and monetizing all ongoing real estate projects including those in Joint Venture companies.” he noted.

On his part,the Pensions Manager, Joseph Poku took participants through the practical details of how to estimate their pensions.

According to him, three factors are considered in the computation of benefits.

He said “ The factors includes the age at which one retires, the average of the best three years’ basic salaries on which one contributed, and the number of months of contributions”

According to SSNIT, these regional meetings are in compliance with the directive by the National Pensions Regulatory Authority (NPRA) to the Trust to intensify its public education activities and to ensure that members of the Scheme understand how their benefits are calculated.