What if my employer is not paying my SSNIT contributions in Ghana?

Under section 3 of the National Pensions Act, at the end of each month your employer must:

• Deduct a worker's contribution of 5.5% of your salary, whether or not the salary is actually paid to you (section 3(1)).
• Pay an employer's contribution of 13% of your salary (section 3(2)).
• Within fourteen days of the end of the month, pay the total of 18.5%: 13.5% to the first-tier basic national social security scheme run by the Social Security and National Insurance Trust (SSNIT), and 5% to the second-tier occupational pension scheme (sections 3(3) and 63(1)).

Your employer may not recover its own contribution from your salary, or deduct an earlier month's worker contribution from a later salary, whatever any agreement says, except after a false written declaration by you or a clerical error (section 3(5) and (6)). Contributions deducted from your pay are held by your employer in trust until paid over (sections 3(7) and 63(5)). Your employer must not reduce your salary because of its contribution liability (section 66), and having a private or company pension scheme does not exempt it (section 62).

Failing to pay the total contributions within fourteen days is an offence punishable by a fine of two thousand penalty units, imprisonment for two years, or both (section 3(10)). Failing to pay contributions or a penalty for unpaid contributions is also an offence under section 83(1)(d), as substituted by the National Pensions (Amendment) Act, 2014, punishable by a fine of up to two thousand five hundred penalty units, imprisonment of up to five years, or both (section 83(1)(h)). Where a company commits an offence, each director or officer is treated as having committed it, unless they prove it happened without their knowledge or that they used due diligence to prevent it (section 85).

• Keep your payslips. A payslip that shows a pension deduction is evidence that your contribution was taken from your pay.
• Ask SSNIT for your contribution record and compare it with your payslips.
• Raise the gap with your employer in writing.
• Report it to SSNIT. A late contribution attracts a penalty of 3% a month (section 64(1)(a)). The Director-General serves a demand notice on the employer and, if payment is not made within thirty days, can collect and recover the contribution and the penalty, and the employer is liable to prosecution (section 64(1)(b), as substituted by the 2014 Amendment Act). SSNIT inspectors can enter premises and require the production of wage and contribution records (section 91).
• On conviction, the court can order the employer to pay the unpaid contributions, interest and penalties to SSNIT, to be credited to the workers' accounts (section 84(2) and (3)).

• Your employer must pay the contributions within fourteen days of the end of each month (section 3(3)).
• After a demand notice is served, the employer has thirty days to pay before SSNIT can recover the contribution and penalty (section 64(1)(b), as substituted).
• SSNIT can sue to recover unpaid contributions, interest and penalties as a debt at any time within twelve years after they became due (section 86(1)).