By A Correspondent- National Social Security Authority (NSSA) is reportedly seriously mulling making part of their payments to pensioners in USD to cushion pensioners from the rising cost of living, The Zimbabwe Independent Reports.

This was revealed by interim NSSA General Manager Arthur Manase who spoke to the publication and said:

With the recent implementation of reforms that saw the contribution rate increased from 7% to 9% split equally between employer and employee, as well as the increase in the maximum pensionable salary from ZW$700 (US$8,64) to ZW$5 000 (US$61,73) we are now able to effectively deal with the core issue of benefit payouts.

We have already instructed our actuaries to conduct an actuarial valuation to determine the level of benefits that the scheme can afford to pay with implementation of the necessary reforms.

Manase also detailed the benefits NSSA gave out to pensioners and said:

Just in the last year alone, Nssa awarded the following: a discretionary bonus equivalent to a month’s pension to all pensioners in July 2019; reviewed the minimum pension from ZW$80 (US$0,99) to ZW$200 (US$2,47) for Pensions and Other Benefits Scheme and ZW$240 (US$2,96) for Accident Prevention and Workers’ Compensation Scheme in October 2019; a bonus equivalent to a 13th cheque in November 2019 and most recently another discretionary bonus equivalent to a month’s pension in April, May and June 2020.

However, the NSSA payouts to pensioners are still very paltry considering the cost of living in Zimbabwe and the inflation that wiped away pensions and savings these past few months.-ZimIndependent