The Teachers Service Commission (TSC) has urged teachers who have not yet registered for the National Social Security Fund (NSSF) to do so to enable the Commission to process the necessary deductions and forward them to the country’s social security fund.
In a circular dated July 15, 2024 and signed by TSC Secretary and Chief Executive Officer, Nancy Macharia, all teachers in the country are expected to register as members of NSSF on or before July 31.
The TSC has instructed all its regional, county, and sub-county directors, as well as the directors of the Centre for Mathematics, Science and Technology Education in Africa (CEMASTEA) and the Kenya Institute of Special Education (KISE), along with all principals of Diploma Teacher Colleges and Primary Teacher Training Colleges, to advise all unregistered teachers to visit the nearest NSSF branch offices or Huduma Centre with their national ID cards to ensure they are registered. Additionally, they are to enforce compliance with the commission’s directive.
“The National Social Security Fund (NSSF) is a statutory body established under NSSF Act No. 45 of 2013. The Fund provides for workers’; Social Security benefits, Survivor benefits and Invalidity benefits,” reads the circular,
“The Commission in compliance with the NSSF Act No. 45 of 2013, effected on its payroll deductions for onward remittance to NSSF in the month of July 2023. These deductions are applicable to all employees on the Commission’s payroll, irrespective of whether the employee is registered with NSSF or not,” the circular seen by Education News reads in part.
The circular, also sent to the Secretary Generals of the Kenya National Union of Teachers (KNUT), the Kenya Union of Post-Primary Education Teachers (KUPPET), and the Kenya Union of Special Needs Teachers (KUSNET), emphasized that each employee must ensure they are registered with the NSSF to have their monthly contributions credited to their individual NSSF accounts.
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“To this end, it is the individual responsibility of all employees to ensure that they are registered with NSSF so that their monthly contributions can be credited to the individual employee NSSF accounts,” reads the circular also.
The circular comes a few weeks after the Commission revealed that more than 4,000 teachers are not properly registered with NSSF and are unlikely to get their benefits if they do not enroll.
The teachers’ employer also called on the affected teachers to visit the nearest NSSF office to registration and forward their new numbers to their respective county directors officers across the country. It advises the teachers that those documents will then be submitted to TSC headquarters for inclusion in the payroll.
According to the existing terms and conditions of service, teachers who are part of the public service expect terminal benefits in accordance with their letters of appointment as an incentive for the services they render to the country for a number of years of their working life.
A provident fund is a retirement budget by the government in which the retiree is given savings as a lump sum payment. The scheme works by workers contributing to the budget, which is held and managed by the government until the retirees can withdraw when the time comes. The provident fund pays out as a lump sum payment, meaning contributors (retirees) can withdraw all the reserves at a go.
A provident fund isn’t the same as a pension account. A provident allotment is a retirement plan run by the government, while an annuity is a retirement plan run by the employer. Provident funds withdrawals are allowed under specific conditions. You can access the retirement reserves if you resign, retire, get terminated, have relocated to another country, or are rendered unable to work due to medical reasons.
By Frank Mugwe
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