The National Social Security Fund (NSSF) says Shs78.8billion has so far been paid out to claimants of midterm benefits, a week since the payments started.
“We offered to pay Shs50billion per week, and we have paid 4,417. This implies that 30 percent applicants have been paid within the first week since we commenced payment on March 11,” Mr Richard Byarugaba, the fund managing director told journalists in Kampala yesterday.
Data from the fund shows that since March 7, of 14,690 applications amounting to shs305billionn have been received so far. About 8,697 of the applications were received at the fund’s branches and the temporary set-up at Kololo Airstrip while 5,993 were received online via its self- service platforms.
The total number of eligible members as of March 1, stands at 41,000, whose 20 percent benefits add up to Shs793 billion.
A trend analysis of those who have received payments so far shows that majority have balances below Shs10million, while a few claimants are sharing the huge chunk of the amounts paid out.
Of the Shs78.8bn paid so far, 3,606 claimants shared a total of Shs16.9billion, meaning each on average receives Shs4.6 million.
At least 328 members have received between Shs10-50million, totaling to Shs8.9bn. Another 303 applicants have received between Shs50-100million, totaling to Shs21.3bn.
Only 180 members have shared Shs31billion, with each receiving above Shs100million.
Asked for evidence of some of the payments made, Mr Byarugaba said “he could not divulge such details due to client confidentiality.”
This followed complaints from some applicants suggesting delays and non-payment despite putting in claims.
“It is a process. We were using human beings to input into the system and that was taking long. On average, our software inputs 200 claims per day and we have about 38 people to do that. It’s not that we don’t want to pay all of them or we don’t have the liquidity,” Mr Byarugaba responded.
He added: “The mechanism involves controls, and is sensitive to make sure we are not doing any double entries physically and online.”