PenCom to penalise PFAs for benefits wrongly paid-Nike Popoola

Acting Director-General, PenCom, Mrs Aisha Dahir-Umar

The National Pension Commission has ordered the Pension Fund Administrators to investigate all reported cases of dead Retirement Savings Account holders before making any payment to the beneficiaries.

The regulator said any wrong payment of death entitlement would be borne by the PFA.

PenCom stated this in a circular to all licensed Pension Fund Administrators on, ‘Addendum to the circular on revised procedures on the processing of death benefits.’

Part of it read, “In the event of payment to wrong beneficiaries, PFA shall be liable and pay from its statutory reserve fund.”

Earlier, the commission had revealed that some unidentified fraudsters under the disguise of being relatives of workers and retirees under the Contributory Pension Scheme had been approaching the PFAs to collect the pensions of contributors.

The fraudsters, who had been deceiving the PFAs with fake documents, had successfully collected the pension benefits of some living workers and retirees after providing ‘evidences’ that they were dead.

The commission revealed this in a circular titled, ‘Revised procedures on processing of death benefits’, which was sent to the PFAs.

It stated in the circular, “The commission has received series of complaints from retirees, who alleged that their PFAs have wrongfully paid their benefits to their next of kin or legal beneficiaries, while they are still alive and in active service without their consent.

“Following these complaints and reports by the PFAs, it has become imperative to issue additional measures to curb these complaints and strengthen the processes and practices of processing and payment of death benefits.”

However, many of such cases had continued to drag without being resolved.

In the new circular, the commission said the PFAs were required to enhance the internal controls and carry out further investigation on the documentation submitted by the next of kin of the deceased before submission to the commission for approval.

It stated that the PFAs should ensure due diligence and conduct search at the probate registry of the issuing authority to confirm the genuineness of the documents, as well as the verification of the named administrator and sureties.

CULLED FROM PUNCH.

Creating a Happy Retirement

Image credited to Daily Express

Can a retiree  have a happy retirement?  In a world filled with mystery,killings, and all social vices, will there be a happy retirement.

Happy retirement means a lot to different people , and how they view happiness.

Dona Rosato in her article captioned “5 Secrets to a Happy Retirement” noted that Towers Watson happiness survey found that retirees who rely mostly on investments had the highest financial anxiety. Almost a third of retirees who get less than 25% of their income from a pension or annuity were worried about their financial future; of those who receive 50% or more of their income from such a predictable source, just under a quarter expressed the same anxiety”

Continuing Rosato noted that “More money makes you happier. Once you amass a comfortable nest egg, though, the effect weakens, says financial planner Wes Moss. For his recent book, You Can Retire Sooner Than You Think: The 5 Money Secrets of the Happiest Retirees, Moss surveyed 1,400 retirees in 46 states. The happiest ones had the highest net worths, but Moss found that money’s power to boost your mood diminished after $550,000”

So how do you make the best out of retirement?   Maintain a positive attitude towards life and pension inclusive; according to the book of Job in the Holy Bible "what people fear most always comes to them". And according to Robert Schuler, in his book , “the power of positive thinking “ he noted that  one of the basic ingredient of success is maintaining a positive outlook to life, believe that you will make it and you will definitely make it, believe that you will not , and you will definitely not”

Therefore maintaining a positive attitude in all aspect of life is a pre requisite for all facets of life and Le Boeuf (1987 :21) noted that “your world is a mirror and your mind is a magnet what you perceived in this world is largely  a reflection of your own attitudes and beliefs. And life will give you what you attract with your thoughts. Think, act and talk negatively and your world will likely be negative. Think, act and talk with enthusiasm and you will attract positive results”.

According to an article in Yahoo Finance captioned “7 ways to Retire happy” Mandi Woodruff opined that  In a new book, "You can Retire sooner than you Thinks", Atlanta-based investment advisor Wes Moss offers an alternative to the traditional line of thinking. Rather than focus on a dollar amount to reach for, Moss decided to figure out what retirees needed to be truly happy in retirement”
“I wanted to go beyond simple income numbers,” Moss says. “I wondered what it really takes to get somebody to a point where they truly feel they have a cushion and they are also enjoying life.”
“In 2012, Moss conducted an online survey of more than 1,200 workers who had either already retired or were fewer than 10 years away from retirement. He asked them questions about what type of cars they drove, where they shopped, how much their homes were worth, and, of course, how much they had saved for retirement. But he also asked about their passion projects, how often they went on vacation, what types of volunteering they enjoyed, whether or not they were satisfied with their lives, and how much time they put into their retirement planning before calling it quits. (Moss did not ask participants about overall debt levels like student loans and credit cards, but did include questions about their mortgage debt).”
What he found was that more money doesn’t equate to more happiness. The happiest retirees didn’t all drive BMWs or take 12 European cruises a year, either.”

That brings us back to the important idea about what gives happiness, happiness is within, it’s a product of contentment, feel contented about what you have, you will discover that you will be happy, feel otherwise, you will discover that you will be sad, all the days of your life.  As Dolly Paton noted in her song “Coat of many colors”, that she was as rich as she could be in her coat of many colors” and she tries to make people  to understand” linked to contentment is happy married life.

The more a retiree stay connected to a happy love life, the better for him. In a research carried out in the United States has it that people tend to be happy when they are married than when they are not. And as they say that divorce is more devastating; coupled with the financial implications and the legal battle that comes with it. It went on to say that people are more likely to commit suicide when they are disconnected with their love life or life partner.  But I will also add that men are likely also  to commit murder when they are disconnected from their love life and the emotional torture of such act can also drive them to take their own lives.  A horrifying story is “ Zola ‘s Therese Racquin, where the couple Therese and Laurent who had murdered Therese’s first husband so that they could come together, become so consumed by guilt and remorse at the act that their relationship is utterly poisoned by hatred and they decided to murder each other” Sweeney ( 1979:31)

 And according to Eileen Sweeney ( op cited) in her book titled “Another country” Sweeney noted that “marriage was something more rounded than mere infatuation, and once a man had built his home, things were different with him. He must still need his home and would never be the same without it”

But does it relate to Africa, where men are more likely to marry more than one wives. But archival Europe’s observed that men are more likely to commit suicide than women, as they have unwritten maxim it is only a disappointed man that hang himself on a tree, a disappointed woman do not hang herself on a tree but on the neck of the nearest man. But I am seeing it from the view that men are more pressed with financial problems than women as the social mobility of a woman is a straight line graph and the social mobility of a man is undulating graph depicting the full structure of a normal curve.

 What then is the most vital ingredient that ushers in happiness, to me is a robust relationship with God, as experience has shown that those who are in tune with God , the creator are more likely to be more happier than others. This is in agreement with Robert Louise Stevenson who stated “that true happiness consists not in knowledge of good things but in good life, not in understanding but in living understandingly, neither is it great learning but goodwill that joins men to God.

And as Awolowo noted in his book “Path to Freedom”, which he authored while in Calabar prison, he noted that, a big car, a big house, designers clothes are all vanity, what men needed is God’s happiness.

Odunze Reginald C

YOUR RETIREMENT MAY NOT BE FARFETCHED- ODUNZE REGINALD C

 

 Image credited to Royal free pension

   Planning when not put in place is  often devastating  and according Elizabeth Garone in an article captioned “From doorman to boardroom”  she noted that “this should be a mandatory business skill — no matter what the career stage. “When technology, economics, and politics change as often as Facebook profiles, being president of a company or a country is a lot like being a tour guide who doesn't know exactly where he’s going,”  if planning is not followed and adhered to. BBC capital rightly opined  It’s never too late to start planning for the next big adventure. Start now. In five years, you’ll thank us.

And one of the basic issues of life that required planning is Retirement. As Retirement may come sooner than you expected . In 1999, when the former president  of Nigeria , General Olusegun Obasonjo introduced, downsizing,  and rightsizing,  many civil servants were taken unaware, till today, they have not recovered from it. And that brings to Retire to retirement planning.

     According to an article in Yahoo Finance captioned “7 ways to Retire happy” Mandi Woodruff opined that  In a new book, “You Can Retire Sooner Than You Think,” Atlanta-based investment advisor Wes Moss, offers an alternative to the traditional line of thinking. Rather than focus on a dollar amount to reach for, Moss decided to figure out what retirees needed to be truly happy in retirement”
“I wanted to go beyond simple income numbers,” Moss says. “I wondered what it really takes to get somebody to a point where they truly feel they have a cushion and they are also enjoying life.”
“In 2012, Moss conducted an online survey of more than 1,200 workers who had either already retired or were fewer than 10 years away from retirement. He asked them questions about what type of cars they drove, where they shopped, how much their homes were worth, and, of course, how much they had saved for retirement. But he also asked about their passion projects, how often they went on vacation, what types of volunteering they enjoyed, whether or not they were satisfied with their lives, and how much time they put into their retirement planning before cal ling it quits. (Moss did not ask participants about overall debt levels like student loans and credit cards, but did include questions about their mortgage debt).
What he found was that more money doesn’t equate to more happiness. The happiest retirees didn’t all drive BMWs or take 12 European cruises a year, either.”

   

     Of all retirement strategies, retirement planning  is often considered the best and the most cumbersome and according to BBC capital, We all have goals. Perhaps it’s to buy your first home. Or to travel the world. Or to leave corporate life for your own company. Or to send a child to university abroad.
Some of these goals take decades of planning, but many can be managed within just five years. That’s right — with smart thinking and planning you can launch the next phase of your life in less than a decade. 

    

     Why retirement planning  is very technical, is that any phase that has passed is irreversible and so staying motivated is the key to a safe retirement planning, and as the millennial are better positioned for effective retirement planning, the rest of us may not have such a privilege. It therefore behooves on us to strategize and a plan for our retirement right from the time, we secured a job.

PVC contractor is APC member –INEC chair

This is even as National Chairman of the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), Mahmood Yakubu confirmed that one of the candidates of the APC is a contractor with the commission.

Addressing stakeholders on the reason behind the postponement of the presidential election in Abuja on Saturday, the INEC boss assured that the contractor’s political inclination would not affect the commission.

The contractor in question is Mohammed Musa, APC’s candidate for the Niger East senatorial district seat.

“Yes, I am aware. That company has been working with the commission since 2011. I assure you that we have a strict system,” he said in response to a question.

“No electoral officer will be compromised. The integrity of the process is protected.”

In an earlier statement released by the PDP, Atiku Abubakar, its presidential candidate, had said that Musa’s company, ‘Activate Technologies Limited’, was saddled with supplying the machines used in printing the permanent voter cards (PVCs).

“While Sani Musa has the right to hold any public office in spite of his line of business, it is morally unjustifiable to allow a well-known supplier of sensitive INEC materials to partake in an election in which the key materials to be used for the poll were supplied by him,” Atiku said in the statement.

Sun

Minimum Wage: Presidency Moves to Appease Labour

Minister of Labour and Productivity, Senator Chris Ngige

Asks govs to plug waste to accommodate workers’ demand
Pleads with NLC for more time to resolve logjam

Onyebuchi Ezigbo in Abuja

Following Nigerian Labour Congress’ (NLC) threat to call out workers on indefinite strike on Tuesday to protest non-implementation of the N30,000 minimum wage recommended by the Tripartite Committee on National Minimum Wage, the presidency has moved to pacify the workers, appealing to them to tarry a while on their planned action.

The NLC had asked President Muhammadu Buhari to submit the N30,000 minimum wage implementation bill to the National Assembly for passage by December 31 last year or face a nationwide strike action.

With the deadline unmet, the NLC President, Mr. Ayuba Wabba, had said the Tuesday strike had become imminent despite a federal government offer for a resolution meeting schedule for January 8.

Authoritative presidency sources, however, told THISDAY Wednesday that the president is making efforts to resolve the wage dispute, which threatens to further obstruct the nation’s fragile economy should the strike hold.
State governors under the auspices of Nigerian Governors Forum had objected to N30,000 as the baseline wage bill for the federation on the grounds that most of the states could not afford it.

Offering N22,500, the governors said anything more would send most of the states into insolvency.
But labour disagreed, contending that N30,000 was a compromised figured, which if diligently pursued would be realisable.

Buhari, according to THISDAY sources, had intervened, asking the governors to reconsider their stand and find ways of acceding to the workers’ demand.

“The president met with the representatives of the governors and appealed to them to plug areas of waste as a way of securing the funds to meet the workers’ demand,” a source told THISDAY.

He said the governors had agreed to heed the advice of the president and had gone back to evaluate their finances, adding that what was needed was some more time for the governors to report progress to the president.

“Certainly, the governors need to come back to the president with their revised position before he could proceed to the National Assembly with an implementation bill,” another presidency source told THISDAY.

Stating that time, though now a scarce commodity, was what was needed to resolve the logjam, he explained that even if the president was minded to proceed to the National Assembly with the bill as requested by labour, the federal legislators had been on Christmas break, adding that there was no way the NLC’s demand could have been met.

“The National Assembly had been on break. And so, even if the president is to overrule the governors on this, there is no way the National Assembly can reconvene before the Friday deadline given by labour,” he said.

Wabba had called on the federal government wednesday to urgently transmit the bill on the new national minimum wage to the National Assembly for a speedy passage.

He said, “It is unfortunate that the federal government is yet to transmit to the National Assembly an executive bill for the enactment of N30,000 as the new national minimum wage.

“Government’s dilly-dallying on the issue has strained government-labour relations with a potential for a major national strike, which could just be days away.

“I want to appeal to the government to do the needful by urgently transmitting the bill on the new national minimum wage to the National Assembly.

“We also would like to use this same opportunity to urge workers to fully mobilise for a prolonged national strike and enforce their right.”

Explaining that the strike would become inevitable as the last option for labour, the NLC president called on all Nigerians and businesses to understand and support it.

He, however, assured workers that their labour, patience and diligence would not be in vain.
Wabba said the NLC leadership remains committed to giving all it takes to ensure workers get just and fair wages in a decent work environment appropriate to their well-being.

He added that the NLC leadership is similarly committed to social protection for workers.
According to him, “The new year presents great opportunities for workers, pensioners, civil society allies and their friends and families to put their numbers to good use.

“This is by voting out, not on the basis of tribe or religion but purely policy, any candidate that cannot serve their interest.

“In the year that is ahead of us, the NLC remains unequivocally committed to the national and workers’ goals which include the campaign for industrialisation, against selective enforcement of “No Work, No Pay” policy of government, among others.”

The N30,000 new minimum wage, which was a compromise figure arrived at by the Minimum Wage Tripartite Committee comprised of the government (federal and states), organised private sector and the organised public sector was contained in the report forwarded to President Muhammadu Buhari. Labour had initially proposed N66, 500, while the federal government proposed N24,500 at the negotiation meeting before the N30,000 was adopted.

However, wednesday the federal government said it would meet with the union on Friday.

The Minister of Labour and Employment, Senator Chris Ngige, said government had invited executives of the organised labour for a meeting at the Conference Hall of the ministry.

General Secretary of the Nigeria Labour Congress, NLC, Dr. Peter Ozo-Eson, said the labour had received letter from the labour ministry for a meeting on Friday.

Meanwhile, the National Association of Nigerian Students (NANS) has issued a notice to all its structures and organs to commence mobilisation for mass action against the federal government, the Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU), and the Academic Staff Union of Polytechnics (ASUP).

This was contained in a statement signed by the association’s president, Danielson Akpan.
The ASUU commenced a nationwide strike on November 4 after the lecturers accused the federal government of not implementing previous agreements.

The association had earlier issued an ultimatum of two weeks to the federal government, ASUU and ASUP on December 23, to call off the strike or face confrontation.

Thisday