Social Security

This page was last updated on: 2023-05-09

Pension Rights

The Pension Act 2010 contains provisions on pension rights, however the information within is very limited. The retirement age ranges between 50 (minimum) to 70 (maximum) years although there is no mention whether this limit is either for men or women or both. For qualifying to old age pension, at least 20 years of service/contribution are required. Every employer is required to ensure that their employees are part of the National Pension Scheme as introduced by the Act. The minimum contribution rate for the National Pension Fund is 10% for the employers and 5% for the employees. There is only a limited mention of qualification requirements, according to which a person may be eligible for pension benefits if they have served a minimum of continuous twenty years with one employer. No provisions on the amount of pension that is paid to a retired worker could be identified. Prior to this law, there was no public pension system for private-sector workers in Malawi. However, voluntary occupational retirement plans were provided by the state run enterprises and private sector firms.  The public-sector workers are covered under the pay-as-you-go Government Public Pension Scheme (GPPS).

Employers are required to maintain life insurance policy for all their workers. The policy should cover at least one year’s pensionable emoluments to an employee. The benefits under life insurance policy are part of the death benefits and hence distributed as specified under section 70 of the law. 

Source: §3, 12, 15 & 70 of the Pension Act 2010 (No. 6 of 2011)

Dependents' / Survivors' Benefit

An employee entitled to pension can nominate his/her family members and the amount of pension that will be shared between them after his/her death and the amount will then be paid accordingly. There is no mention of the qualification requirement in terms of contributions for entitlement to pension.

Source: §70 & 71 of the Pension Act 2010

Invalidity Benefit

No provisions on invalidity benefits could be identified within the law.

Loading...