The need to provide members of retirement funds which are not regulated by the Pension Funds Act access to a specialised dispute resolution forum

Résumé 0

This paper discusses the disparity in the manner in which retirement funds members regulated by the Pension Funds Act ("PFA") and those not covered by the PFA are treated in relation to the process they need to follow to resolve their retirement funds related complaints. In particular, this paper argues that there is no rational basis for not extending the services of the Office of the Pension Fund Adjudicator to members whose retirement funds are not regulated by the PFA. It is argued that the services of this office should be extended to all retirement funds in South Africa irrespective of whether they are regulated by the PFA. Once this office has been extended as proposed in this paper, it will be able to adjudicate disputes arising from all retirement funds in South Africa. This office should be made easily accessible to all retirement funds members. It is argued further that there is a need for the state to financially capacitate this office in order to make it available in all the provinces of the Republic. This will allow all retirement fund members irrespective of where they reside to be able to lodge complaints with a specialised tribunal dealing with retirement related disputes.