Times Of Swaziland: GOVT LAUNCHES  ELDERLY FUNERAL  COVER, PARTNERS  WITH MVA

GOVT LAUNCHES  ELDERLY FUNERAL  COVER, PARTNERS  WITH MVA
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Nonduduzo Kunene on 15/02/2023 07:49:00


MBABANE – Government has officially launched the much awaited elderly funeral
cover.
The cover was launched yesterday by the deputy prime minister’s (DPM) office
Principal Secretary (PS) Melusi Masuku during a press conference. Masuku
announced that some elderly grant beneficiaries who will pass away would be
covered under the government funeral cover. The senior citizens will be covered
for E3 000.
He explained that the DPM’s Office partnered with the Sincephetelo Motor
Vehicle Accident Fund (SMVAF) in this exercise. However, not all senior citizens
qualify for the government funeral cover. Masuku explained that not all elderly
would automatically qualify for the funeral cover. He said only the needy would
be covered. The PS said from the passing on of an elderly person, a selected
family member would be expected to file an application through the regional
social welfare centres.
An assessment will then be conducted which will determine whether the deceased
elderly person deserved to be covered by the government funeral cover or not.
“Those who already have funeral policies with other insurance companies will
not benefit from government’s cover,” he said. Adding, Masuku said their
system was able to detect whether the deceased elderly person was indeed a
beneficiary of other funeral policies. He said the claims would be paid within
24 hours from the time of lodging, excluding weekends and public holidays.
Further, the PS said the reason government partnered with MVA was because the
parastatal already had an up and running system which could speed up the payment
process, rather than starting a new one. He said the payouts would be through
MTN mobile money and bank accounts.
Success
Meanwhile, MVA Chief Executive Officer David Myeni said they were committed to
make the exercise a success. Myeni said already they had a system that processes
funeral covers of people who died from road accidents. For that reason, the CEO
said absorbing the elderly funeral cover would not be a burden to them. “We
commit to assist the DPM’s Office in this massive exercise for the benefit of
emaSwati,” he said.
The elderly funeral cover was announced last year by His Majesty King Mswati III
during the opening of the fourth session of the 11th Parliament. Minister of
Finance Neal Rijkenberg announced government’s budget of E20 per month, which
would go towards the elderly funeral cover.Last year, the country had 75 489
registered elderly people. This translated to around E15 million that would be
spent by government monthly for the funeral cover.