Total of $13.95M paid out so far by FNPF and the government through the COVID-19 withdrawal assistance

A total of $13.95 million has been paid out so far by the Fiji National Provident Fund and the government through the COVID-19 withdrawal assistance.

FNPF Chief Executive Officer, Jaoji Koroi says $2.05 million has been paid by the government and $11.90 million has been paid by the Fund.

Koroi says about 18,400 FNPF members have been assisted through the COVID-19 withdrawal scheme.

He says that the volume of applications received continues to increase and to date, they have received more than 46,791 applications.

Koroi says FNPF teams have been working continuously ever since this withdrawal scheme started and a total of 14,900 applications still need to be processed and paid.

He says the number of applications received so far is almost 70% of the total number of applications that were processed by the Fund in the whole of 2019.

Koroi says as the Fund copes with this huge demand, they are also pleading with members to be patient, reassuring members that each application will be processed.

He says with the Fund implemented a new digital submission platform through the Employer Online Portal, a huge number of applications were received manually.

Koroi says 7,700 applications were received from the Western Division manually dating back to 1 April 2020.

He says these applications have been prioritized for processing this week as the forms were delayed due to lockdown restrictions which only enabled the Fund to receive the forms last week.

Koroi says the same application forms also underwent a quarantine and scanning process to ensure that it was uploaded for online processing.

He says applications forms received via the Funds email platforms are also prioritized for processing this week.

Koroi says they understand the urgency of disbursing members’ funds due to the economic hardships that have come about as a result of COVID-1, however, they will ensure that applications go through the required checks.

He says teams have also been mobilised to deal with incomplete or queried applications and are engaging daily with employers to verify members’ details.

Koroi says from the applications that have been received, some were queried due to employers not signing or stamping the form; incomplete form; members not submitting the requirements with their completed applications and employers not submitting required documents with the members’ application forms.

Koroi says the Fund has also received enquiries from members about the dual payments of top-up amount from Government.

He says government top-up portion is processed on the same day, with the FNPF balance, however, members whose bank accounts are held with Westpac, BSP, Bank of Baroda, HFC Bank or Bred Bank, funds are updated one day later.

Koroi says this is due to FNPF’s EFT platform being ANZ Bank’s Transactive payment portal, which processes payments for other banks, on the next business day.

He has reassured members that there is no need to panic and that the Fund will pay out the member as timely as possible.

The CEO says that those opting for M-PAISA payment through Vodafone, Inkk and Digicel or Post Fiji BillPaid receive their payment in full, however, any fees associated with this service will be met by the member.

Koroi says FNPF has not decided on the closing date for the COVID-19 withdrawal assistance however they are encouraging members to come forth and apply now if they wish to do so.

He says FNPF will continue to assess as they believe that they have passed the peak submission period for the scheme.