The Office of the Pension Funds Adjudicator is intensifying its educational drive with a nationwide stakeholder engagement campaign to educate the public about the mandate of the tribunal, complaint processes and how its services may be accessed.
The Office of the Pension Funds Adjudicator is intensifying its educational drive with a nationwide stakeholder engagement campaign to educate the public about the mandate of the tribunal, complaint processes and how its services may be accessed.
The adjudicator is a dispute resolution body for employees and beneficiaries which seeks to resolve complaints in terms of the Pension Funds Act in order to uphold the integrity of the pension fund industry and to protect the interests of pension fund members.
In the last quarter of last year, outreach programmes have been held in North West, Northern Cape, Free State and Limpopo.
The 2015 leg will resume in August and will include visits to Gauteng, Mpumalanga, Eastern Cape, Western Cape and KwaZulu-Natal.
In Gauteng, stakeholder engagement road shows will take place on Thursday 13 August at the Youth Community Centre (library) in Diepsloot and on Friday 21 August at the Soshanguve TT Section Church from 9:00am until 12.30pm.
Over the ensuing months, senior officials will travel to various provinces to explain how the statutory body can help to resolve pension disputes in a procedurally fair, economical and expeditious manner.
Pension Funds Adjudicator Muvhango Lukhaimane said the body investigates and determines complaints of abuse of power, maladministration, disputes of fact or law and employer dereliction of duty in respect of pension funds.
Ms Lukhaimane said there appeared to be a general lack of knowledge, especially by people living in far-flung areas, about the existence and mandate of the adjudicator and the procedure to be followed when lodging a complaint.
Complaints include failure to pay retirement, death, disability and withdrawal benefits; dissatisfaction with benefits paid; dissatisfaction with decision and/or conduct of the fund and/or employer; division of pension interest in divorce matters; and allocation of death benefits.
