Payment of N1.3 billion death benefits of deceased workers approved by FG
- The sum of N1.3 billion has been approved by the federal government for the payment of death benefits of 497 deceased workers in the federal civil service
- The disclosure was made by the permanent secretary, Service Welfare Office, Office of the head of the Civil Service of the Federation, Didi Walson-Jack
- According to Walson-Jack, payment to beneficiaries will commence before the end of April 2019
The federal government has approved the sum of N1.3 billion to pay death benefits of 497 deceased workers in the federal civil service.
Didi Walson-Jack, the permanent secretary, Service Welfare Office (SWO), Office of the head of the Civil Service of the Federation (OHCSF), disclosed this in Abuja on Wednesday, April 10, at the 2nd edition of the permanent secretary’s quarterly forum with labour leaders in ministries, departments and agencies, NAN reports.
Legit.ng gathers that she said that the figure was part of the 563 next-of-kin of the beneficiaries screened for payment across 116 MDAs in January.
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Walson-Jack: “In order to make payments to deceased next-of-kin, a service-wide verification exercise of backlog of death benefits claims of 563 deceased officers cutting across 116 MDAs was conducted in January 2019.
“To confirm the veracity of the claim requests submitted by the MDAs, after the verification exercise, a total of 497 next-of -kins of deceased officers were cleared for payment of N1.3bn."
She assured that payment to beneficiaries would commence before the end of April 2019.
Walson-Jack said that the Pension Reform Act, 2014, provided that every employer of labour with not less than five employees must insure them to a minimum of three times of their annual total emoluments.
She noted that the Act had marked the beginning of the Group Life Assurance (GLA) scheme under the OHCSF for federal public servants.
According to her, GLA scheme is the scheme whereby the federal government has insured the life of every serving officer and this has been done in line with the Pension Reform Act.
Walson-jack explained that every serving officer who dies has benefits which his or her next of kin could claim.
She said that the aim of the quarterly forum with joint leaders in MDAs was to foster industrial peace and harmony in the public service.
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Walson-jack said the forum also exchanged ideas on how to strategise, initiate and address issues bordering on the welfare and conditions of service of public servants.
She said that for improved productivity, attention should be placed on the welfare of civil servants.
Meanwhile, Legit.ng previously reported that the Imo chapter of the Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC) and other sister bodies issued a seven-day ultimatum to the state governor, Rochas Okorocha, to pay the salaries of workers for March 2019.
In a joint statement issued in Owerri by the state chairmen of NLC, the Trade Union Congress (TUC); and the Joint Public Service Negotiating Council (JPSNC); Austin Chilakpu, Nkim Tangban, Aloy Iwuanyanwu, respectively, the organizations demanded the salaries of workers.
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Source: Legit.ng
