The Social Security and National Insurance Trust (SSNIT) has eliminated over 11,000 ‘ghost’ pensioners from its payroll.

This was after an internal audit which uncovered fictitious deals in the operations of the scheme over the years.

Director-General of SSNIT, Dr John Ofori-Tenkorang, revealed this on Asempa FM’s Ekosii Sen programme Wednesday.

He said some pensioners aged 101 were still being paid though they had died years ago.

“After 75 years, SSNIT stops paying contributions but our audit revealed that, people as old as 101 were receiving survivors benefit,” Dr Ofori-Tenkorang bemoaned.

The exercise, the SSNIT boss stated, has helped in ensuring deserving pensioners are paid their due since he took over in 2016.

Dr Ofori-Tenkorang maintained that SSNIT is the only institution in the country that guarantees benefits ranging from old age retirement pensions, old-age lump sums, invalidity pensions and survivor’s benefit for a sign-on contribution amount of just 11% of a monthly salary.

Based on this backdrop, he said they have intensified public education in compliance with the directive by the National Pensions Regulatory Authority to ensure that contributors understand how their benefits are calculated.