30 Years Later, Daughter Battles Pension Fund for Late Father’s Unpaid Benefits

“He Worked All His Life”: Daughter Fights to Claim Father’s Pension as Fund Fails to Trace Beneficiaries for 30 Years

A daughter’s emotional fight against a decades-long administrative limbo highlights cracks in South Africa’s pension system

When her father passed away in May 1995, a young girl lost more than a parent. She lost the stability he had worked hard to secure. Decades later, she’s now an adult, fighting a bureaucratic battle to claim the last portion of his pension, nearly R400,000, from a fund that has left it in limbo for almost 30 years.

The case, recently heard by the Pension Funds Adjudicator, shines a harsh light on the sluggishness and shortcomings within parts of South Africa’s retirement fund industry. And more deeply, it raises questions about what happens when the most vulnerable, like the homeless or long-lost family members are named in financial documents but never found.

A promise left unfulfilled

The woman’s father was a member of the Metal Industries Provident Fund and left behind over R1.6 million in death benefits. She received R1.2 million, disbursed in two payments in 2023, nearly 28 years after his passing.

But a remaining R400,000 has yet to be paid. Why? Two other beneficiaries were listed on the nomination forms: the deceased’s brother and nephew. Both have been untraceable since the 1990s.

The daughter, who filed a formal complaint with the Pension Fund Adjudicator in November 2023, told the tribunal that her father didn’t even fill out the nomination forms himself, her grandmother did. She also stated that the nephew had been homeless for years, and no information about the brother was available.

Still, the fund insisted that she had received her share, and that the investigation was “complete.”

The Adjudicator isn’t buying it

But Muvhango Lukhaimane, the respected Pension Funds Adjudicator, disagreed sharply.

“For the board to wait over 27 years until the complainant approached them is inexcusable and unconscionable,” she said in her ruling.

She criticized the fund’s near-total inaction in tracing the other two listed beneficiaries. Lukhaimane found no evidence that the board had conducted proper investigations, interviews, or even basic follow-ups. Instead, it had simply relied on the daughter’s testimony and let the case gather dust for decades.

“In a country where poverty and unemployment are rampant, how many beneficiaries are left on the streets, unaware that funds meant for their survival are sitting idle in pension accounts?” she asked.

A symptom of a bigger problem

The case is not just about one family. It highlights a broader, systemic issue in South Africa’s pension fund industry: the struggle to trace beneficiaries and the lack of urgency in doing so. According to industry estimates, billions of rands in unclaimed benefits sit in retirement funds, many for deceased workers whose families never receive what’s owed to them.

And it’s often the poor, the homeless, and the disconnected who are most affected.

In this case, the fund admitted that it had not traced the brother or nephew, nor had it engaged with others who may have had useful information. As Lukhaimane put it, “The board seems to have no plan except to wait for the beneficiaries to magically appear.”

That, she said, is a dereliction of fiduciary duty.

One year to find them or pay up

In a scathing ruling, the Adjudicator gave the pension board 12 months to make a real effort to trace the missing beneficiaries. If they cannot be found within that time, the full balance must be paid to the daughter.

The decision could set an important precedent, forcing pension funds to treat unclaimed benefits not as forgettable loose ends, but as part of their duty to the people who earned them.

Public sentiment: “This happens too often”

On social media, South Africans expressed frustration, with many sharing similar stories of unclaimed benefits or stalled payouts. “My mom fought for five years to get my dad’s money,” one user wrote on X (formerly Twitter). Another commented, “If the government or employers were owed R400,000, they’d have moved mountains already.”

Pension fund watchdog groups have echoed these sentiments, calling for more transparency and regulatory pressure to address long-outstanding claims and improve beneficiary tracking systems.

A daughter’s fight, a nation’s reflection

For the woman at the center of this case, the battle is deeply personal. It’s about more than money, it’s about honoring a father who worked hard, paid into the system, and whose final wishes were left ignored by bureaucracy.

If nothing else, her case is a reminder that behind every fund, every form, and every “untraceable beneficiary,” there’s a human being, often waiting, often in need, and too often forgotten.

{Source: IOL}

Follow Joburg ETC on Facebook, Twitter , TikTok and Instagram

For more News in Johannesburg, visit joburgetc.com