Director of Pension Mr Shem Nyakutu (left) at a past even in Migori in January. [File, Standard]
Tomorrow marks a new dawn for husbands married to civil servants.
From Monday, July 1, they will start getting monthly pensions in the event of their partners’ death.
This will be made possible by the coming into effect of the new superannuation contributory scheme for civil servants, which has among other things overturned the tradition where only widows were enjoying this facility.
“Our current pension law has been such that in the event a male civil servant who has attained retirement age dies, his wife receives his monthly pension for the rest of her life,” said Director of Pensions Shem Nyakutu.
SEE ALSO :Kenya hosts US pension funds meet“However when a female pensioner dies, the widower is only given her (the deceased’s) monthly pension for five years. This has been overturned by the amendment done in 2012 to the Widows and Children Pensions Act Cap 195.”
The director said starting this July, men will be getting pensions meant for their wives in the event they die.
The amended Act affects “every male public officer in the service of the government at the date of commencement of this Act, every male public officer not being a teacher appointed to service under the government or transferred thereto from other public service after the date of commencement of this Act.”
Teachers too are not left out because “this act applies to every male teacher who is in the employment of the Commission or every male teacher who enters into the employment after the commencement date.”
According to the Public Service Superannuation Scheme Act No 8 of 2012, which comes into effect tomorrow, the civil servants’ pension scheme has been overhauled by providing that each of the 277,000 active civil servants make mandatory contributions.
SEE ALSO :City Hall to cede assets in Sh70b debt headacheThis law stipulates that all civil servants who are aged 45 years and below are supposed to contribute 7.5 per cent of their monthly salary to the scheme, while the government will top up with 15 per cent of the worker’s salary.
According to the law, from July 1, everybody employed in the public service on permanent and pensionable terms, and is aged below 45 will automatically become a member of the Superannuation Scheme. The pension scheme is meant to cushion the public servants upon attaining the age of 50 when the contributions by the government to the scheme shall immediately be payable to the member.
The official retirement age currently is 60 years, except for judges and university dons whose mandatory retirement age is 70 years.
Overburdening taxpayers
To guard against the trend of pensioners overburdening the taxpayers with elongated pension payments, the law has anticipated entrapment of widows and widowers by younger ‘gold diggers’.
SEE ALSO :Unclaimed financial assets safe with UFAAThe Widows and Children Pension Act provides that: “A widow’s pension shall not be granted if (a) the widow was at the time of the death of the deceased cohabiting with a person other than the deceased; or (b) after the death of the deceased, the widow remarries or cohabits with any person.”
It also provides, “further if the widow after getting the pension remarries or cohabits with any person, the pension shall cease as from the date of remarriage or the commencement of cohabitation.”
The children from such a union will also not be catered for by the Pension Department. Ordinarily, when a member who was married at the date of his retirement, and was receiving a retirement benefit dies, a pension that is equivalent to the unutilised balance of his retirement savings account shall be paid to his dependants.
And in the event of public servant dying in service, the contributions by the government to the member’s retirement savings account shall be paid to the appointed dependants. However, where a member retires upon attaining the age of 50 years, the government’s contribution will be paid to the member.
Yesterday, Nyakutu said there are 277,000 former public officers whose monthly pension payment amounted to Sh3.2 billion. This translates to Sh38.4 billion per year.
SEE ALSO :Auctioneers to recover Sh150 million rent dues He said some of these were earning double pensions because they had ventured into politics after retirement where they too had exited.
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PensionRetirement benefitsWidowers
