The National Pension Commission has paid a total of N107.93bn to 313,468 contributors under the Contributory Pension Scheme that have temporarily lost their jobs.

One of the objectives of the Pension Reform Act of 2014 is to ensure that every person who has worked either in the public service of the federation, Federal Capital Territory, states and local governments or the private sector receives their retirement benefits as and when due.

Through the Pension Reform Act, the commission has been able to establish uniform set of rules, regulations and standards for all aspects of pension administration including payment of retirement benefits to retirees.

Under the scheme, workers in paid employment that lost their jobs and are unable to secure new jobs within a period of three months are entitled to 25 per cent of their contributions.

A further analysis showed that out of the N107.93bn, the private sector accounted for 95.38 per cent of those who benefitted from the payments while the public sector accounted for 4.62 per cent.

The commission said in its first quarter report for the year that approval had also been granted for the payment of N4.51bn to  10,733 Retirement Savings Account holders who were under  the age of 50 years, disengaged from work and unable to  secure another job within four months of disengagement.

The report read, “Approval was granted for payment of N4.51bn to 10,733 RSA holders who were under the  age  of  50  years  and  were  disengaged  from  work  and  unable  to  secure another jobs  within four months of disengagement.

“The  cumulative  total  number  of  RSA  holders  who  were  paid benefits  for  temporary  loss  of  job  was  313,468  people and they  were  paid  a  total  of  N107.93bn being  25 per cent  of  the balances of their RSAs as prescribed by the Pension Reform Act 2014.”

The report also said that the commission approved  the  payment  of  N4.28bn  as  death  benefits  to  the beneficiaries  of    1,586  deceased  employees  during  the  period, adding that this brought  the  total  number  of  deceased  employees  from  both  public  and  private sectors  to  55,820.

It said that the amount paid during the first quarter moved the total payments of death benefits to N173.86bn.