A PENSIONEER who contributed to the Social Security and National Insurance Trust (SSNIT) for 35 years has expressed his disappointment at the gratuity package.

He has consequently called on the government to act and save low-income earners from what he called the heinous crime being perpetrated by SSNIT in active connivance with their political mentors against the poor and long suffering working population of the country.

Mr. J. H. Bekoe, the pensioner, said the current SSNIT policy negates entirely the objective of the Nkrumah regime, which instituted the SSNIT scheme to give a measure of respectability and dignity to working people in their old age.

He said the scheme is now a system used to oppress workers and send them to their early graves.

Bekoe blamed the two Rawlings-led regimes (PNDC/NDC) for the misuse of the workers’ fund.

Complaining to the Chronicle in Kumasi, Bekoe said an amount of ?4,393,024.36, after unbroken contribution over 35 years, was a pittance and, therefore, unacceptable.

He said since April 1966, he had contributed 5% of his salary to the SSNIT fund without interruption.

According to him, his employers also contributed 17.5% of his basic salary to the fund, all in a bid to ensure his security during old age. He expressed his intense dissatisfaction with the package because SSNIT had handed him a raw deal.

According to Bekoe, he had been encouraged to update his contributions to the fund over the years by the fact that the 17.5% contributed on his behalf by his employers alone could attract 3% compound interest.

He argued that if government had allowed his employers to invest his total contributions of 22.5% in a deposit account at any credible bank, the least he could reap would be in the region of ?25 million.

Aggrieved by the naked robbery, Bekoe has appealed to the SSNIT management to prepare an enhanced package less what has already been paid him.

He said he could not refuse the ?4.3 million because, as a rational human being, he needed some money to live on after his retirement.

Bekoe expressed his reservations on the current SSNIT policy, which assesses a pensioner’s contribution using his three best years.

At best the policy favoured chief executives and high-income earners, the pensioner said.

The less endowed to earn appreciable salaries but who contribute to sustain SSNIT over long periods of time, are the worse affected by the policy, Bekoe complained.