8,651 jobless workers withdrew N14bn from pension savings

About 8,651 Retirement Saving Account holders withdrew N14.20bn in the first quarter of 2024 due to temporary job loss.

This was disclosed in the first quarter report 2024 published by the National Pension Commission recently.

In the report, PenCom said that it received 8,702 requests from RSA holders seeking to access 25 per cent of their RSA balances due to temporary loss of employment.

Out of that, 8,651 RSA holders’ requests were approved, while 51 requests were rejected because their ages were above 50 years.

A breakdown of the request showed that a majority of the request came from the private sector at 8,167 while the remaining 484 were from the public sector.

Following the hike in the Monetary Policy Rate in the quarter by the Central Bank of Nigeria, members of the private sector and economists had said that the decision would lead to fresh job losses and possibly recession.

CBN has been increasing the MPR at its recent meetings in a bid to fight stubborn inflation.

PenCom in its report indicated that it approved N14.20bn for the 8,651 RSA holders under the age of 50 years.

As of the end of 2023, the commission received 510,148 requests for withdrawal of 25 per cent of the RSA balance, approved 493,156 and rejected 16,992 requests.

Following a similar pattern, most of the requests came from the private sector. The amount approved stood at N223.99bn as of December 2023.

In terms of En Bloc’s payment of retirement benefits in the quarter, PenCom received 4,042 requests from retirees for En Bloc payments during the quarter under review.

“Out of that, 3,936 retirees’ requests were approved as their RSA balances could not provide a monthly pension of at least one-third of the prevailing minimum wage (N30,000), while 106 were rejected because of incorrect Annual Total Emolument. Out of the 3,936 retirees whose benefits were approved, 3,691 were from the private sector, while the remaining 245 were from the public sector. The sum of N2.56bn was approved for the 3,936 retirees,” it stated.

During the quarter, the commission revealed that it processed and issued 17,317

PCCs to organisations that met the requirements and N69.82bn was remitted into the RSAs of 197,040 employees of the 17,317 organisations issued PCCs.

Also, the commission in the quarter under review recovered N2.194bn comprising principal contributions (N751.51m) and penalties (N1.443bn) from 31 defaulting employers.

Meanwhile, the commission’s Secretariat/Legal Advisory Services Department had been requested to take legal action against three defaulting employers.