Abstract:
This study examined post-retirement challenges affecting welfare of social security fund members in Dar es Salaam based on a cross-sectional survey of 186 respondents. Specific objectives were, to explore and identify main challenges perceived to affect access pension benefits in SSPF among the retired civil servants, to examine the extent to which the challenges are related with socioeconomic attributes of the retired civil servants, and to determine the extent to which the challenges encountered by the civil servants affect welfare.
Descriptive statistics and logistic regression were used for estimating and testing the proposed relationships. The descriptive analysis indicates that transport costs, insufficient amount of pension received, delays in processing and paying terminal benefits, and mishandling of clients’ data were important challenges affecting members of social security in accessing pension funds. The results from the Logistic regression model suggest that delay in payment, psychological effects, housing condition, life stress experience, early death perception, gender and marital status are significant factors in explaining challenges facing members of social security pension funds.
Despite the encountered challenges, most of the retirees acknowledged the importance of pension as it serves the intended purpose. However, they claimed it not to be sufficient enough to carter for all of their needs such as food, housing, medical care and their dependent’s education without depending on other sources of income such as business and remittances/family support.
From the findings, it is recommended that knowledge on social security pension funds and financial management to be provided to members of social security schemes as well as creating awareness and attitude towards investment and retirement while on service for better retirement plans. Further, pension funds payment systems should be improved by social security schemes to ensure timely provision of services to improve the retiree household’s welfare.
