(Daily Graphic, Nov 24, 2011, Page 23)
THE
Social Security and National Insurance Trust (SSNIT) has reminded workers in
the Northern, Upper East and Upper West regions of the need to ascertain on a
regular basis if their employers were paying their contributions.
According to the Area Manager of SSNIT
for the three northern regions, Mr Allan Azu, some workers were living in a
delusion that their SSNIT contributions were being paid only to realise when it
is too late that this was not the case.
He said workers could avoid this risky situation
if they made it a habit to visit SSNIT periodically to check the status of
their contributions.
“It is your money that you are investing
for future purposes, so if you fail to ensure that this money is really being
stored for you, you would be doing harm to yourself,” he stated.
Mr Azu made these remarks during the
opening of the SSNIT open air customer clinic in Yendi. The programme, which
took place at the forecourt of the Yendi community centre, lasted for four
days.
The area manager said the desire of
SSNIT was to imbibe in its client the habit of checking and updating,
regularly, their records, instead of waiting till they go on retirement and
begin to encounter some difficulties.
“We want to ensure that by the time the
customer is claiming his or her contributions, the whole process could run
smoothly without any delays or hindrance,” he stated.
He reminded workers who had already begun
their retirement to provide their life certificates at periodically to give
indication that they are still alive.
The Yendi Branch Manager of SSNIT, Mr
Patrick Agblemor said SSNIT introduced the customer clinic because it wanted to
address proactively the problems that often emerged when clients are due for
their claims.
“We know many of you (customers) feel
reluctant to come to us and this is why we have decided to come closer to you,”
he noted.
Mr Agblemor said there were some things
that workers often tended to overlook, which later turn to hunt them.
He mentioned a change of name,
residential or work address, SSNIT number and employment as some of the few
details that needed to be corrected.
The branch managed urged workers in
Yendi to take advantage of the customer clinic to update their records, clarify
the status of their contributions and make the necessary changes.
He said clients of SSNIT could also use
the customer clinic to find out if the loans they guaranteed for students under
the Student Loan Scheme had been repaid.
“If you guaranteed a loan for a student
and the person has defaulted in payment, then it behoves on you to find the
person and bring the fellow to SSNIT for an arrangement to be made for
repayment, else the balance would be deducted from your contributions,” he cautioned.
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