Date of divorce matters in payouts
You cannot claim monies accrued beyond that
If you are divorcing – and are married in community of property – make sure you know how much you are entitled to get from your spouse’s pension fund on the date the divorce is finalised.
If you do not claim, the amount entitled to you can only accrue interest. You cannot claim a share of the amount accrued after the divorce date.
Denise Malunga, 45, did not know this as she believed that she was entitled to 50% of the contributions only when her ex-husband dies or retires.
Her former husband worked for the government which only allowed ex-spouses to claim their share in terms of the clean-break principle in 2012.
Before then, such payouts only took place once the member died, resigned or retired.
Malunga, of Protea Glen – Soweto, said she was married in community of property to her former husband and was not employed at the time of their divorce in 2002.
The mother of two said their relationship had irretrievably broken down.
She said as time went by her ex-husband no longer wanted to support their two children and pointed her to his pension fund to claim her money.
“He told me I should have claimed my share from the Government Employees Pension Fund a long time ago instead of hounding him for maintenance,” Malunga said.
Malunga traced it to Smart Administration Leveraging Technology (Salt) who offered to pay her R118 055.
Malunga said this was too little as her ex-husband’s fund benefit statement shows an illustrative total benefit value of R1.3-million.
Mampeo Leisanyane of Moruba Consultants and Actuaries, which did the calculations on behalf of the Soweto City Council Pension Fund, said the amount allocated to Malunga was correct.
She said the total amount of the contribution on the date of divorce was R109494 which they had to share in half.
Leisanyane said the statement which is in Malunga’s possession was issued this year, therefore she is not entitled to any contributions which were made after their date of divorce.
Leisanyane said the administrator should pay her R54 747 plus the interest which has accumulated over the period of 15 years.
Anna-Paula Sathea of Salt said they will pay Malunga accordingly.
She also confirmed that the value the actuaries calculated was limited to contributions made until the date of divorce in 2002.