The government introduced the unemployment benefit fund to help employees, who lost their employment to cope with life pressure. NSSF becomes the first pension fund scheme to invite ex-workers to apply.
Dar es Salaam. The National Social Security Fund (NSSF) has started receiving applications for the newly introduced unemployment benefit which covers its members who lost their jobs.
The benefit was recently introduced in the new regulations governing both the NSSF and the Public Service Social Security Fund (PSSSF) which are the only funds after merging the social security schemes.
Social Security Regulatory Authority (SSRA) public relations and promotions manager Sarah Kibonde told The Citizen that recently already the NSSF has started receiving applications since Thursday, November 1 and has started reviewing them.
The NSSF move comes three months after the enactment of the new Public Service Social Security Fund Act, 2018.
“The NSSF confirmed to me that they formally began receiving the claims from November 1,” she elaborated.
On the other hand, PSSSF is also finalising processes for building its systems for payment of the same, she said.
These two existing pension funds were formed after the enactment of the law which saw the merging of all five pension schemes.
These were the PPF Pension Fund, Public Service Pension Fund (PSPF), Local Authorities Pension Fund (LAPF), Government Employees Provident Fund (GEPF) and the NSSF.
As the PSSSF formed to serve the workers under the public sector, the NSSF on the other hand serves employees in the private sector.
The unemployment benefit came to replace the withdrawal benefit whose cancellation caused protests from some stakeholders who argued that members who lost their jobs should be entitled to withdraw their contributions so that they could start other income generating activities.
