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A multitude of Zimbabwean meant to be in retirement are facing uncertainty as a shocking US$14.25 million in pension payments go unclaimed.
According to official data from the Insurance and Pensions Commission (IPEC), a total of 94,702 pension fund members had unclaimed benefits by the end of December 2024.
After spending years working hard and contributing to pension schemes, these individuals are now unable to access their benefits due to structural and administrative errors.
By Gamuchirai Mapako
The data also shows that self-administered funds accounted for the highest proportion of unclaimed pay-outs, accounting for 48% of the total. Insured funds followed with 30%, while stand-alone funds accounted for the remaining 22%. The statistics are scathing, depicting a picture of systemic negligence that has turned retirement into a source of agony for plenty.
Unclaimed benefits have increased by 104% to $14.25 million, which can be ascribed to a number of variables. One major reason is a lack of information among employees about their entitlements.
According to findings from the 2024 Q4 Life Industry Report, many workers are unaware of what they are due and the procedures for accessing these funds. Inaccurate record-keeping have further contributed to the situation.
Legacy data issues continue to trouble pension administrators. Due to data consistency issues, many programs are unable to find participants whose benefits became due following Zimbabwe’s currency changeover in 2009. This has been exacerbated by inefficient data transfer during business changes, with incomplete or obsolete records being handed from one fund administrator to the next.
Sandra Musevenzo, director of the Zimbabwe Association of Pension Funds (ZAPF), attributed the increase in unclaimed benefits to a range of persistent challenges that have not been addressed for years.
“The growth in unclaimed benefits can be attributed to various factors, although the exact reasons are unclear due to a lack of concrete information. Some potential contributing factors include data integrity issues: poor record-keeping, outdated records, and legacy weaknesses in data management make it challenging for pension funds to trace members with unclaimed benefits,” Musevenzo told Business Times.
She added that the problem is compounded by insufficient education for pension fund members, who often do not understand what benefits they are entitled to or how to go about claiming them.
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