National Social Security Authority (Pension and Other Benefits Scheme (Rates and Benefits)) (Amendment) Notice, 2024 (No. 33)

The Minister of Public Service, Labour and Social Welfare has amended the NSSA Pension and Other Benefits Scheme (Rates and Benefits) Notice of 1993 (S.I. 393 of 1993). The notice takes effect from the date of publication, 31 May 2024.

Two money figures change. The funeral grant under section 32 becomes US$200, expressed to apply with effect from 1 January 2024, payable in ZiG at the prevailing official interbank rate. And the maximum monthly earnings on which contributions are calculated — the insurable earnings ceiling — rises to US$700, also payable in ZiG at the official interbank rate. A funeral grant is payable for a deceased contributor with at least 12 months of contributions, or for someone who was drawing an invalidity or retirement pension.

Re-employment after retirement is now handled explicitly. A person under 65 who is drawing a retirement pension and goes back into employment is not entitled to the pension during that re-employment; payment stops from the date of re-employment and resumes on retirement from it, and the new period of work counts as a separate contribution claimable separately from the first. The same rule applies, with necessary changes, to anyone who received a retirement grant under section 29.

Short-service contributors get a clearer refund. An employee for whom contributions were paid for less than 12 months is entitled, on termination of employment, to a refund of the contributions plus interest at the prime bank lending rate, calculated on a compound interest basis.

Survivor rules are tidied up. Where there are no dependent children, the deceased's parents rank next, and where there are no parents, any other dependant. Where a contributor leaves no dependent spouse but dependent children, or the widow or widower dies leaving the contributor's dependent children, 80 per cent of the survivor's pension and children's allowance that the surviving parent would have received is payable. A survivor's pension is paid at the same time as any other benefit due to the surviving spouse, but a spouse may draw only one survivor's pension at a time — someone who remarries and is widowed again may take the greater of the two.