The Head of Public Service Joseph Kinyua has revealed information on the five per cent (5%) deductions on the basic salary of public officers in the new pension scheme as of the 1st of January 2022.
Kinyua revealed that in the new order, public officers will have to comply with a 3% deduction on their salaries. Section 19(3) of the Employment Act 2007 also stipulates that an employee is required to take home not less than a third of their salary.
The scheme began in January this year (2021) and all public officers lost 2% of their basic salary towards the scheme. However, this amount will rise to 3% in January next year. This was following Kinyua’s directives on the implementation of the Public Service Superannuation Scheme that now includes all Civil Servants, Teachers and the Disciplined Services.
According to the current service pension scheme, there are 375,000 teachers employed under the Teachers Service Commission (TSC), more than 270,000 pensioners, 128,000 police and prison staff and 75,000 dependents.
Therefore that the government will be giving away Sh. 2.4 billion every month to the fund once it gets in full operation.
Kinyua also revealed that the option to make more additional voluntary contributions is more than the mandatory 7.5%.
According to the Head of Public Service, the rate of contribution will increase starting at the rate of 2% in the first year (2021); 5% in 2022 and 7.5% in 2023.
Besides the above rates, employees have the option of making more contributions above the mandatory 7.5% of their basic salary.