Pension fund criticised for mishandling R2 million death benefit claim.
A pension fund has been slammed for failing to properly investigate a claim by a woman who was presented as the deceased’s live-in girlfriend before allocating her a portion of his R2 million death benefit.
The woman later admitted to the Pension Funds Adjudicator that she had never met the deceased and had never been in a relationship with him, saying she had been persuaded by a friend to submit a false claim in the hope of making quick money.
The case also exposed a separate error by the Becsa Provident Fund, which initially paid the deceased’s family incorrect amounts from the benefit and only corrected a shortfall of more than R325,000 after the beneficiaries repeatedly questioned the payments.
The complaint was lodged by the deceased’s mother after her son died on August 29, 2022.
