Highest complaints from withdrawal benefits

Source: ©convisum 123rf

Second was complaints relating to the non-payment of retirement fund contributions (section 13A compliance) at 23,87%.

The number of complaints lodged by funds against employers for non-payment of contributions in terms of section 13A had also increased.

Of complaints finalised 6.91% related to the payment of death benefits in terms of section 37C of the Act.

This is according to the released 2020/2021 annual report of the OPFA.

Section 37C clarity

Pension funds adjudicator, Muvhango Lukhaimane, says that clarity continues to be provided to funds by the OPFA, the Financial Services Tribunal, the various High Courts and the Supreme Court of Appeal on the interpretation of section 37C.

“It is most prudent that funds/administrators invest in training initiatives within their boards of management or organisations to ensure that technical expertise or knowledge on how to deal with death benefit payments is shared and maintained.

“The lack thereof is apparently clear from the issues that get misinterpreted as these are often not complex at all nor do they raise novel issues,” says Lukhaimane.

Highest new complaints for PSSPF

The Private Security Sector Provident Fund (PSSPF) remained the biggest contributor to new complaints.

However, in the reporting period, under statutory management and having increased its complaints management capacity (both in terms of systems and case administrators), the PSSPF’s turnaround times had somewhat improved.

The number of complaints received in relation to non-payment/late payment/partial payment of claims remained of concern. These represented 74.22% of complaints.

Hence, the revised complaints management process should be able to assist further by ensuring that the fund/administrator is prompted to resolve the complaint directly with the complainant before referring it to the OPFA.

As the process becomes embedded and the data statistically significant, referrals would be made to the FSCA to deal with those regulated entities that were failing to abide by the Treating Customers Fairly (TCF) outcomes.

Regulated entities are expected to demonstrate that they deliver the six TCF outcomes to their customers throughout the product life cycle, from product design and promotion, through advice and servicing, to complaints and claims handling.

Information and performance

The next highest outcomes that were complained of related to information provided and performance of products.

“Again, these were outcomes that were within the parties’ competence to improve on. All in all, the top four outcomes represent 97,32% of all complaints.

“It can, therefore, be safely concluded that funds/administrators/employers need to put measures in place to improve on TCF outcomes and they must be held accountable for this in order to improve the member experience,” says Lukhaimane.