36,499 FNPF members receive a total of $25 million through the COVID-19 withdrawal scheme

36,499 people who are FNPF members have received a total of $25 million after they had applied for assistance under the FNPF COVID-19 withdrawal scheme.

FNPF CEO, Jaoji Koroi says $3.0 million was paid by Government and $22 million has been paid by the Fund.

Koroi says that 65,800 applications have been received from members, which is equivalent to 93% of the total withdrawals made in the last financial year.

He says they have paid out some 56% of applications received and they have a target to clear another 25,000 this week, inclusive of approximately 8,600 applications that were received before 16th April.

Koroi says 3,700 COVID-19 withdrawal assistance applications are on queried status with the Fund.

He says while there is progressive improvement in its processing, the Fund is also faced with the arduous task of rectifying these 3,700 applications.

Koroi says applications are queried due to the form not fully completed by the member, employer’s stamp or signature or both are missing, required documents not submitted by the member or employer or both and wrong form filled by the member.

He says they have a dedicated team looking into all queried applications as it is one of the main reasons as to why some applications are delayed further.

Koroi says members whose applications are queried are being contacted by their team and for those that continue to be unreachable, the Fund will publish their names in the media at the end of this week so they can have them come forward to rectify the query.

He says they continue to seek members’ patience and understanding of the delays and also reassure members that they will pay all members as soon as practical.

Koroi says it is definitely not because of cash flow but they want to ensure that proper procedures are maintained on withdrawals.

He says the Fund has also been actively working with all banks for verification of member’s bank accounts, before any approval or payment is done and this is due to the relaxation of the bank statement requirement.