Management of pension scheme and primary teacher retirees social welfare in Adjumani district, West Nile Uganda

Abstract

The issue of welfare of retirees is of grave concern to the government of any country and it is believed that this is dependent on the efficient management of their retirement benefits by their Pension Fund Managers. In Adjumani district, Pension Scheme has been in operation but it is beset with a lot of problems such as irregular/nonpayment of pensions and gratuity, mismanagement of pension funds, lack of regulatory and supervisory board, no transparency and large-scale corruption. Thus, retirees suffered untold hardship. Yet the aim of enhancing pension scheme, which is also the global objective is to improve the welfare of retirees by reducing old age poverty. Therefore, the purpose of this study was to examine the effects of pension scheme management on primary teacher retirees’ social welfare. The study was guided by three objectives; to examine the relationship between pension scheme management and primary teacher retirees’ access to health care, to establish the relationship between pension scheme management and primary teacher retirees’ access to descent shelter / housing, and also to investigate how pension scheme management is correlated to primary teacher retirees’ food security and nutrition in Adjumani district. The study used descriptive cross-sectional survey research design and adopted both quantitative and qualitative approaches. The sample size consisted of 80 teacher retirees and 03 district officials involved in pension management. The simple random sampling technique was used to select teacher retirees while purposive techniques was used to the district officials for the study. Questionnaires and interview guides were used as instruments for data collection. Quantitative data was analyzed using descriptive statistics and inferential statistics (Pearson coefficient correlation), using SPSS 16 tool. The results from both the quantitative and qualitative data revealed that there was a strong relationship between pension scheme management and teacher retirees’ social welfare in Adjumani district. Following the findings, the study recommended that; pension scheme policy makers should consider formulating policies that will enhance teacher retirees’ social welfare, pension managers both at the district and the ministry should ensure effective and efficient management of pension scheme, and teacher retirees should apply for pension on time so that processing of pension is done promptly.