Business Report writes that the Pension Funds Adjudicator’s (PFA’s) annual report has indicated a 22.41% reduction in new complaints for the 2016/17 financial year.  

Nonetheless, the period had been a busy year for the PFA with an average of 625 complaints received each month.  PFA Muvhango Lukhaimane reported that while 1,717 complaints were carried over from the 2015/16 financial year, 7,501 new complaints were received during the reporting period.  This was a 22.41% reduction from the previous year.  The reduction was attributed to the PFA coming down heavily on tracing agents.  “During late 2015/16, the PFA decided to exclude incomplete complaints lodged with the office by tracing agents that were charging mostly former members of retirement funds, in the hope that there would be unclaimed benefits for them.  The PFA regarded this as a misleading exercise and the tracing agents involved were warned to desist from this practice or face prosecution for carrying on businesses under false pretense as the complaints lodged in this manner mostly had insufficient information for the PFA to investigate further.”  Thus complaints lodged by tracing agents dwindled.  With streamlined systems in place, the PFA had been able to finalise matters expeditiously, with 75% of determinations being handed down within six months of the complaints being received.  

• Read this report in full on page 20 of Sunday Independent Business Report of 22 October 2017
• Read the PFA’s press statement in this regard at PFA online

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