Mr. Emmanuel Sackey, Legal Services Manager for SSNIT, has indicated that persons who fail to pay SSNIT contributions for their employees are liable to a fine of GH¢2,000 or a jail term of 5 years in line with Section 64 of the Pensions Act.
He said, it applies to all employers including those who have employed house helps. “It is not voluntary, it is compulsory”.
Mr Charles Akwei Garshong, the Acting Public Affairs Manager of Social Security and National Insurance Trust (SSNIT), stated that ,such employers contend that, the house help has not been placed on any regular income, therefore, they won’t pay the SSNIT contributions.
He noted that, this is not enough justification to deny anyone their SSNIT contributions.
He said, ”You’re under obligation to register and pay that person you have engaged as a house help. You have engaged that person for service and you are paying him/her directly or indirectly, so you’ll need to get to our office, let’s sit down and agree on how the payment is going to be made”.
“Probably for now, you would say no one will come to your home and check, but when we get to know, we’ll come after you with court summons,” he warned.
They emphasis that, SSNIT takes no pleasure in taking legal actions against defaulting employers. Hence, all employers should comply with the rules and pay the deserved SSNIT contributions for their workers.
