THE National Social Security Authority (NSSA) will adopt electronic means as it moves away from the paper-based registrations for pensions and claims amid revelations the manual system is delaying the processing of benefits.
The development was revealed by NSSA Bulawayo corporate communications officer Msizi Ndebele at a recent Zimbabwe Diamond and Allied Minerals Workers Union’s Gwanda regional meeting.
The meeting was meant to adopt the union’s second congress resolutions that were passed when the event was held in Bulawayo, last year.
Among the resolutions, mining workers were seeking reasonable pensions, good health conditions, fair labour practices, liveable wages, an end to sexual harassment in mines and the provision of adequate personal protective equipment, among others.
“There are concerns that NSSA takes too long to process benefits. There is too much paperwork that is involved. Our benefits — there are different benefits that we pay — we have short-term and long-term benefits,” Ndebele said.
“The short-term benefits are the one that we pay there and there, while long-term benefits are the money that gets into your account every month until the person dies. So NSSA is moving away from too much paperwork to an electronic version.
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“It was also not making us happy as well as NSSA because it was frustrating clients. We are moving away from that, but we are starting off from the contribution side.”
There were concerns by mine workers that NSSA was quick in processing contributions, but slow in processing benefits.
Ndebele said NSSA created a portal to enable the clients to contribute which smoothens the process for a faster payment of benefits. “With the same system that we have now, the documents are not that many. For example, on retirement, it’s a claim form that you complete with the employer plus your certified copy of your ID and the last copy of the payslip. You submit them to NSSA and we will start paying your benefits,” Ndebele said.
Ndebele said on issues of safety at work, they could only assess and enforce health and safety measures to various industries except in mines, as it was the purview of mines inspectors.
The official added that NSSA only deducted 4,5% of one’s basic salary as a contribution towards pension with a ceiling of US$700.