Are You Retirement-Ready? Five Questions Every Worker Should Ask

Retirement Edge Program

Weekly Pension Education · 26 Oct 2026

Are You Retirement-Ready? Five Questions Every Worker Should Ask

Readiness is not a feeling, and it is not one number. Four of these five questions have answers on paper, in documents you can ask for this month. The fifth is the one only you can answer.

Our interest first: Standard Pensions Trust is a corporate trustee paid a fee to run Tier 2 and Tier 3 schemes, listed on the NPRA's licensed-trustee notice dated 30 April 2026. Question three points at Tier 3 saving, which we sell. Check the rule numbers yourself, and put these questions to us as well.

One: what arrives, and when?

A SSNIT monthly pension needs 180 months of contributions and age 60, or 55 on voluntary retirement with a reduced pension (Act 766, sections 70 and 76) - and it starts only when you apply (section 76). It begins at half the average of your three best years' salary, rising 1.5 per cent for each extra year worked, to a ceiling of 80 per cent (section 77). Under fifteen years there is no pension: contributions come back with interest at 75 per cent of the Treasury-bill rate (section 72). Tier 2 pays differently: at retirement age the whole accrued benefit is paid once as a lump sum, untaxed (sections 101 and 104).

Two: what am I building?

Your trustee owes you a benefit statement within three months after each financial period. It must carry your name, the contributions paid, any period for which none was paid, and the value of your benefits at the start and the end (L.I. 1990, regulation 39). Money becomes yours the moment it reaches the trustee (section 98), so a blank month is not slow paperwork: it is money that has not arrived - often still in transit, but worth chasing in writing. SSNIT sends its own annual statement to your last known address, and owes you nothing if it has none (section 57).

Three: what does my Tier 3 allow?

Tier 3 is voluntary and tax-relieved: up to 16.5 per cent of monthly income counts as deductible income, or 35 per cent of declared income for informal-sector savers outside Tiers 1 and 2 (section 112). The whole is payable at retirement age, and a withdrawal then is tax exempt; earlier, the appropriate income tax at the rate in force applies — before ten years of contributions in the formal sector, five in an informal-sector personal pension — on a consent you sign showing gross, tax and net (sections 110 and 112; NPRA benefit guidelines, para 5). Savers in no mandatory scheme must put three quarters of their benefits into a life annuity guaranteed for fifteen years, a quarter paid as cash (regulation 126).

Four: records and nominations

Retirement age here means 60 for a formal-sector worker, unless regulations prescribe an earlier age, or the scheme's own age for an informal-sector saver (regulation 156). Nominations matter as much: SSNIT's run through your employer and must be reviewed at least every five years (section 81). Die after retiring but before 75 and a lump sum for the unexpired pension, up to fifteen years, goes to the dependants you named (section 78). A Tier 2 or Tier 3 death claim without a valid nomination needs letters of administration or probate, and the money follows the Intestate Succession Act, 1985 (regulation 128; benefit guidelines, para 4(2)(e)).

By the numbers — Act 766 and L.I. 1990, read 24 September 2026. Legal thresholds and clocks, not a forecast of anyone's pension.

180 months of SSNIT contributions before a monthly pension is payable (s76)

50–80% of the average of your three best years, by length of service (s77)

3 months after each financial period for your Tier 2 or Tier 3 benefit statement (reg 39)

16.5% of monthly income, the Tier 3 relief cap — but the money stays locked to s110's clocks

KEY TAKEAWAY

Four answers are already written down: what will arrive, what you are building, what your Tier 3 allows, and whether your records and nominations are right. No rule answers the fifth — what life you are planning for — so start it by listing what you expect to spend each month.

What you should do next

Main — Ask your trustee in writing for your latest benefit statement (reg 39) and read four things: your name, the contributions paid, any period with none paid, and the value at the start and end.

Support 1 — Count your SSNIT months against the 180 needed and note the date you turn 60; the pension begins when you apply (ss70, 76). Within five years of 60, do it now.

Support 2 — If you save in Tier 3, write down the date of your first contribution. The ten-year formal or five-year informal personal-pension clock runs from it (s110).

Support 3 — Review your nominations — SSNIT's at least every five years through your employer (s81) — and ask your trustee what nomination it holds for Tier 2 and Tier 3.

If something looks wrong — Ask payroll in writing; they must reply within fourteen days (reg 110). Then your trustee, named on your statement, which must assist as far as reasonably practicable (reg 40) — with no employer, start there. Then the NPRA (s7); a member may also ask the NPRA Board in writing to review a trustee's decision (s202).

In Ghana, under Act 766 — the pinpoints. Tier 1: s70(1); s72(1); s76(1) (application; reduced pension on voluntary retirement); s77(2) and (3); s80; s57(2); s81(1), (2) and (5); s78(3). Tier 2: s98(1); s101(1); s104(2). Tier 3: s110(1) and (2); s112(2), (3) and (5) to (7) (exempt on or after retirement, taxed earlier); s111 with reg 126(1) and (4) (a contributor in no mandatory scheme). Records, claims and redress: regs 39(1) and (3)(a) to (c); 58(1) and (3); 110; 40; 128(1) to (3); 156 (retirement age); s7(j); s202. NPRA Benefit Administration Guidelines (Gazette No. 13, 21 January 2025; OCR read twice): paras 3(1) and (2), 4(1), 4(2)(e), and 5(1) and (2). Act 766 and L.I. 1990 read on 24 September 2026 from the government-domain copies. No tax rate appears here: the rate is tax law, not pension law.

Standard Pensions Trust publishes the questions members should ask of any trustee, including us.

General pension education from Standard Pensions Trust under the Retirement Edge Program. Standard Pensions Trust is a corporate trustee (listed on the NPRA's licensed-trustee notice dated 30 April 2026) paid to run Tier 2 and Tier 3 schemes, so it has a commercial interest in Tier 3 saving. It explains the National Pensions Act, 2008 (Act 766) as amended, the Occupational and Personal Pension Schemes (General) Regulations, 2011 (L.I. 1990) and NPRA guidelines published in the Gazette, as read on 24 September 2026. It is not personalised financial, tax or legal advice, states no tax rate and promises no return. Rules may change: confirm current requirements with the NPRA.

Are You Retirement-Ready? Five Questions Every Worker Should Ask