The Administrators of Pension Funds (AFP) have accumulated some RD $870 million in the individual Capitalization Accounts (or retirement accounts) that belong to 39,386 persons who have passed away and this money is not been claimed by any of the heirs.
According to Resolution 457-03 of 11 October 2018, the National Social Security Consul as published on its webpage that the Comptroller General of the entity has sent to the Superintendence of Pensions the results of the audit for 2014 with the startling discoveries and the accumulated amount in the retirement accounts. The information was sent to the Superintendence in August 2016 in a report that also expressed that the beneficiaries had not been contacted by the administrators of pension funds in order for the heirs to obtain the survivors pension that has a seven-year deadline after the death of the affiliate.
Given this situation, the general manager of the National Social Security Council, Rafael Perez Modesto, issued a call to the relatives of the deceased members to ask for the survivors pension at the different AFPs. He said that often times the heirs do not know that they have this right and the AFPs often times find the difficulty to locate the family and might even not know that the affiliate has passed away.
An editorial in Diario Libre in its El Espia commentary section on 20 October 2018 calls for the authorities of the Affiliates Information and Defense Agency (DIDA) to carry out a campaign to reach out to beneficiaries of around RD$900 million in unclaimed pension money. As reported the pension fund administrators will repossess the money if it is not claimed soon. The beneficiaries have only seven years to claim the money. The money will be paid to the survivors of pension plan holders, but these beneficiaries had to claim the cash. Diario Libre speculates that most of those who have not claimed the money are unaware of the existence of the facility. Major banks are the owners of the Pension Plan Administration companies in the Dominican Republic.
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Diario Libre
Diario Libre
22 October 2018
