It is important to know the rules concerning your government pension fund to be prepared for your retirement and it’s good that you want to learn as much about it as possible. You must know how to get all the information you need at any stage and you can obtain the necessary form concerning your benefits from the GEPF who will either mail, fax or e-mail it to you. In a case where the member dies, his or her family must complete all the applicable forms as well as submit the necessary documents which relates to the death of the member. All of these can be obtained from the toll-free GEPF’scall centre. For new members of the fund who was previously employed by someone else who did not have a fund it is good to know that they can buy back service. They should submit a written request via their human resources department and the GEPF will provide them with a quotation which they can decide upon. Should you resign, a Z102 form must be submitted as soon as possible by your Department to the fund.

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If you want to know what actuarial interest is, it is important to also know the rules of your government pension fund and that it is the value of all of a member’s accrued benefits and this can be calculated by using a different formulae. This formulae are available in a booklet provided by the fund. It is important to know that the accumulated value of contributions made by a member self will not be any indication of the real benefits which you will receive. This can only be calculated on the final average salary of the member as well as how long pensionable service the member has. Another important fact to know is that you can’t borrow money from the GEPF, because no provisions were made for loans. If a member was employed by a private company and was a member of a pension fund it is good to know that after he or she has joined the government, their credit can actually be transferred to the GEPF. Tax issues are important too and if you should resign or retire, tax will be payable on your benefits. Gratuity will actually be eligible for tax relief but annuities will be taxed.

You should know that annuity refer to a monthly pension while a gratuity or lump sum is only a once-off payment and you should know that benefits can either take the form of a gratuity or an annuity. You will not be able to put up your pension fund to serve as collateral for a bond because the rules don’t provide collateral. Should you be transferred from one department to another your benefits will be added together and your pensionable service will go on without interruption. You should also know when you will retire and this is something that depends on the conditions of service with your department, but usually the age is 60 but you can retire 5 years earlier which will reduce your benefits. Should you have left the employment of the government and come back afterwards it is good to know that if it is less than 36 months you can buy back your pensionable service by paying in the amount paid out to you plus the interest. We advise you to browse their website where you can get all the information available if you want to learn more about the rules of your government pension fund which can give you great peace of mind.