How to find and claim unclaimed pension money

A retirement fund benefit becomes unclaimed when the fund hasn’t paid it to the member or to their beneficiaries, often because the fund can’t find them. The FSCA says that if you belonged to a retirement fund in South Africa, even as far back as 1981, money may still be waiting for you.

What counts as an unclaimed benefit

The Pension Funds Act says a benefit is unclaimed if the fund hasn’t paid it within 24 months of the date it became due under the fund’s rules. For a death benefit, the 24 months run from the date the fund learnt of the member’s death, unless the fund’s board justifies a longer period in writing.

The FSCA says a fund can move unclaimed benefits into another pension or provident fund, and the member or their beneficiaries can still claim them there.

The Government Employees Pension Fund (GEPF) lists the most common reasons a benefit goes unclaimed:

• the employer didn’t submit the exit forms when the member left, or the forms had errors,
• the fund couldn’t get a tax directive from SARS because the member’s tax affairs weren’t in order,
• the payment came back because the banking details were wrong or the account was frozen or dormant, or
• the fund didn’t have enough information about the beneficiaries of a member who died.

How to search with the FSCA

1. Open the FSCA unclaimed benefits search. Enter the person’s name, surname and ID number. Add the name of the fund and of the employer if you know them.
2. Search for yourself or for someone else. You can search for another person, such as a family member, if you have their consent. The FSCA asks you to confirm this, and to agree that it may share your details with the fund’s administrator if it finds a possible match.
3. If there is a match, the FSCA gives you the contact details of the fund or its administrator.
4. Claim from the fund. The FSCA doesn’t pay benefits. Contact the fund and follow its claims process to prove that the money is due to you.

You can also contact the FSCA in other ways:

• SMS: 30913 for an enquiry with an ID number, or 30766 for a general request.
• Email: Pensions.UBmemberID@FSCA.co.za for an enquiry with an ID number, or Pensions.UBQuery@FSCA.co.za for a general request.
• Phone: 0800 20 3722, toll-free.
• In person: the FSCA office at River Walk Office Park, Block B, 41 Matroosberg Road, Ashlea Gardens, Pretoria.
• Online form: the FSCA enquiry form.

If you worked for government: the GEPF

The GEPF publishes its own lists of unclaimed benefits, by province, on its unclaimed benefits page. The GEPF treats a benefit as unclaimed when it hasn’t been paid within 24 months of the member’s last day of service.

Former members, the beneficiaries of members who left or died, and the guardians of those beneficiaries can claim. The GEPF asks for:

Call the GEPF on 0800 117 669 or email enquiries@gepf.co.za if you have questions.

If you are claiming for a family member who died

You need the member’s death certificate. If the death hasn’t been registered yet, see how to register a death. If someone else is the deceased’s executor, the fund may need the executor’s details too, so ask the fund what it needs.

Sort out your tax first

The GEPF says a benefit can stay unclaimed when it can’t get a tax directive from SARS, for example because the person isn’t registered for tax or hasn’t submitted their tax returns. Before you claim:

• make sure you are registered for tax: see how to get a SARS tax number, and
• file any returns you haven’t submitted: see how to file a tax return.

Stay safe

• Search on the official FSCA and GEPF websites, and type their addresses yourself.
• You can search yourself. Be careful of anyone who asks you for money upfront to find or “release” a benefit: only the fund pays a benefit, after it has checked your claim.
• Give your ID and banking details only to the fund or its administrator, through the contact details the FSCA or the GEPF gives you, not to someone who contacts you first.