PFA sensitises pensioners on programmed withdrawal 

Trustfund Pensions Ltd., a leading Pension Fund Administrator (PFA) in Nigeria, has organised a Pre-Retirement and Retiree Forum to sensitise pensioners on Programmed Withdrawal (PW) and Retiree Life Annuity (RLA) of the Contributory Pension Scheme (CPS).

According to Trustfund, the programme was necessary as the annual reach out provides them the opportunity to meet retirees, to find out their challenges and give them the information that would guide them properly in making certain decisions.

Speaking at the event held yesterday in Lagos, Regional Manager, Trustfund Pensions, Obiora Ozoekwem, said the forum was an opportunity to eradicate fears by pensioners that the monthly pension would stop coming once they exhaust the balance in their Retirement Savings Accounts (RSA).

According to him, retirees who are under the programmed would continue to receive pensions from the Pension Protection Fund (PPF), pending the implementation of the Minimum Pension Guarantee (MPG), as directed by the National Pension Commission (PenCom).He said: “It was important that we held this event to educate retirees especially as PenCom passed a circular last year mandating every PFA to continue to pay pensions to retirees under the programmed withdrawal even when they run out of funds in their RSAs until the Minimum Pension Guarantee (MPG) is fully implemented.

“For some reasons, if someone was overpaid, or emoluments were not calculated properly before the Federal Government pays as this incident only happens with federal civil servants, PenCom requests us to do a refund.“When we do a refund, we are supposed to recalculate the person’s pension based on what is left so that the account does not run out. There have been omissions in the past where you see RSAs run out of funds but if such occurs now, we will sustain such retirees.”

He further noted that retirees on PW are entitled to getting pension enhancement following growths in their RSA balance as a result of returns on investments as stipulated in Section 82(2) and (3)(C) of the Pension Reform Act (PRA) 2014.

In his remarks, Business Manager, Onikpan Branch, Trustfund Pensions, Billy Osazuwa, assured retirees under the programmed withdrawal that their funds are being properly managed and have also amassed huge returns on investments.“What our retirees get every month and the returns on investments outperform what they collect every month. So, instead of our retirees funds going down, their monies are actually increasing,” he said.