SSNIT to stop paying pensioners not biometrically registered

The Social Security and National Insurance Trust (SSNIT) has announced it will from February 1 cease payment of monthly benefits to pensioners who have not biometrically registered with the Trust.

“Pension payment to affected pensioners will only be restored after biometric registration,” it said in a public notice issued in the Daily Graphic Friday.

SSNIT said it will from February 1, 2020 delete the names of pensioners who have not gone through the SSNIT biometric registration, which started in 2014.

According to the Trust, despite several reminders to pensioners and members on its scheme to go for a biometric registration, some of them are yet to go through the process initiated as part of measures to check ghost names from its systems.

It has for the last time asked all members and pensioners to register biometrically by January 31, 2020.

It said pensioners with mobility challenges should contact the Trust to schedule home-visits.

SSNIT this year announced increase in monthly pensions for the year 2020 by at least 6.6 per cent and overall 11 per cent for the year.

Accordingly, lowest paid pensioners will this year receive 300 monthly while pensioners who received the minimum of 300 cedis monthly last year will now receive 357.18 cedis.

Seventy per cent of pensioners will receive 11 per cent or more as effective increase in their pensions while 98 per cent on the other hand, will receive an effective increase equal to or above the targeted inflation rate for 2020.

Meanwhile, SSNIT said it paid a total of 224 million cedis to 216,000 pensioners on the SSNIT payroll, bringing its total expenditure on benefits payment for the year 2019 to 3 billion cedis.