PFA orders pension fund to reassess death benefit allocation

THE Office of the Pension Funds Adjudicator (PFA) has set aside the allocation of a death benefit by a pension fund after finding it failed to adequately investigate the financial dependency of a claimant and her children on the deceased.

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The Adjudicator, Muvhango Lukhaimane, ordered the Private Security Sector Provident Fund to reassess the matter and make a fair allocation based on dependency.

The dispute arose after the complainant, who claimed to be the life partner of the deceased, challenged the distribution of a R254,609.51 death benefit following his passing. The deceased was a member of the provident fund through his employer, Night Guard CC.

The fund had distributed the benefit as follows:

- 10% to the life partner (unemployed)

- 23% to the deceased's employed adult son

- 25% to his minor daughter (a scholar)

-14% each to three stepchildren, including two toddlers and one scholar

The complainant objected to this distribution, asserting that the deceased had named her as the 100% beneficiary of his fund benefit and claimed to have documentary evidence. She also questioned the payment to the deceased's 24-year-old employed son, who, she argued, was not financially dependent on his father at the time of death.