Fund members urged to claim

The Government Employees Pension Fund (GEPF) is concerned about its 1 841 members in the province who have not yet claimed their benefits amounting to R79,5 million.
It was learnt when the entity conducted an outreach programme at the University of Limpopo’s Onkgopotse Tiro Hall on Saturday that the aforementioned number of people have not yet claimed what is due to them and the entity urged beneficiaries to come forward and do so.
The entity’s Senior Communications Manager, Mack Lewele indicated that they want people to claim what is due to them so that they can actively participate in the economy and enjoy the benefits. The gathering was attended by over 200 people being GEPF’s active members, pensioners and beneficiaries who were later afforded an opportunity to raise their concerns and ask questions relating to the scheme.

According to Lewele, GEPF represents about 1,7 million people and it is responsible for more than R1,8 trillion of assets making it the largest pension fund administrator in Africa.
He said the main purpose for the programme was to interact with active members, pensioners and beneficiaries in order to inform and educate them about the fund’s services, processes and benefits such as funeral and unclaimed benefits. He further outlined that GEPF has over 12 300 members around Mankweng alone. Speakers made presentations on different subjects such as fraud and corruption, medical aid, funeral cover and unclaimed benefits.
“The focus was also on financial brokers who are masquerading as GEPF employees and offering members GEPF services and products, while at the same time advising them to resign instead of retiring by promising too good to be true financial returns. GEPF members are promised inflated and incorrect financial returns by financial brokers and those who fall to this trick only realise very late that it was not true. We don’t encourage members to resign because we want them to grow their benefits until retirement age and thus guarantee them life-long monthly payments as well as medical care for those who belong to medical schemes,” he explained.
Lewele added that a while ago GEPF’s funeral cover was contributing R7 500 for members and R3 000 for children but after members complained about this, the board listened and increased the amount to R15 000
for members and R6 000 for children. On the day, members were also encouraged not to resign when they approach the retirement age as this puts them at a disadvantage and they tend to lose out on other benefits that are enjoyed by retired pensioners.
Given Maphupha who made a presentation on fraud and corruption said the first five years on pension are crucial because criminals usually steal information during this period and report the beneficiary dead so that they can claim the remaining balance as beneficiaries.

Story & photos: ENDY SENYATSI
>>endy@observer.co.za