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The Social Security and National Insurance Trust (SSNIT) has started a mass inspection and registration exercise from October 8, 2018 to December 7, 2018.

Speaking at the commencement of the exercise, the Deputy Director-General, Operations & Benefits (DDG-Ops & Benefits), Laurette Korkor Otchere, stressed that employers have to pay monthly social security contributions of workers to SSNIT to ensure that they are not “left out” when they are due to retire.

She emphasised that employers that fail to register their workers would be opening themselves up to possible prosecution, saying “This would be the last resort as the Trust is more interested in retrieving workers’ contributions rather than sending employers to jail.”

The mass inspection and registration exercise will culminate in a “Hit the Street Campaign” from November 26 to 30, 2018.

During the campaign, staff of each branch of the Trust will pay visits to establishments within their locality with the aim of ensuring that workers are duly registered on the SSNIT Pension Scheme so that they would not be denied their due when they approach the retirement age or become disabled.

The week-long programme is a key component of the Mass Inspection and Registration campaign and is in consonance with Article 3 (Section 1 to 3) of the National Pensions Act, 2008 (Act 766).

This states that (1) an employer of an establishment shall deduct from the salary of every worker in the establishment immediately at the end of the month, a worker’s contribution of an amount equal to five and half per centum of the worker’s salary for the period, irrespective of whether or not the salary is actually paid to the worker; (2) An employer of an establishment shall pay for each month in respect of each worker, an employer’s contribution of an amount equal to 13 per centum of the worker’s salary during the month; (3) Out of the total contribution of eighteen and a half per centum an employer shall within 14 days from the end of each month transfer the following remittances to the mandatory schemes on behalf of each worker, among others.

The mass inspection and registration exercise is one of the many proactive approaches being used by the Trust to help it fulfil the key object of ensuring that all establishments and employees are registered and pay the required social security contributions.

According to SSNIT, it currently runs the mandatory 1st Tier National Pension Scheme, the benefits of which include old age pension, invalidity pension, death and survivors and emigration pension.