Willem Beeby, Manager Growth and Innovation at TEBA

I am not an employee benefits professional, but please indulge me for the next 900 words, or half a cup of coffee.

I have spent the better part of the last 20 years working with funds, corporates, government institutions and trusts to find ways to address the issue of unclaimed benefits within this and other sectors. These efforts have been truly rewarding, with hundreds of thousands of individuals and families accessing retirement savings and occupational health claims that have, and continue to change their lives.

Simply put, the social impact is complex but undeniable.

The efforts are too numerous to describe but suffice to say it covers the entire spectrum from a simple desktop trace, to sending a colleague into the beautiful mountains of Qauchas Neck, Lesotho, on a donkey – repeatedly. The anecdotes are also too numerous to mention.

A ruminating thought however, throughout this journey, has always been how sustainable these practices are, not only from a simply defined social point of view, but also in other areas of sustainability …

So, lets ask some uncomfortable, yet admittedly incomplete questions, shall we?

Environment – What is the environmental footprint of our tracing efforts and are we aligned with the efforts within our industry?

The main contributors to our footprint is the amount of travelling (by road, plane, etc) that tracers and claimants must do to unlock benefits. To combat this, and excessive costs, the industry has moved to desktop tracing but, this too, has its drawbacks as the documents required to successfully claim require claimants to travel to and from Home Affairs, Master of the High Court, SARS etc.

Ideally:

• Travel can be limited by using desktop tracing, digital payment processes, and partnering with local infrastructure to provide access to facilities

• Risk management should, wherever possible, not be pushed down to claimants, but rather centralized. Example, instead of requiring certified documents (the value of which is almost non existent) ID, Bank Accounts, Tax Numbers can be verified as part of our back office processes.

• Roadshows or outreaches can also be subjected to rigorous review and should have a clear ROI, not only from a financial perspective but, a carbon footprint one.

• Dispatching teams can be avoided

What is our social impact and how does this affect our license to operate within communities?

I repeat, the social impact is undeniable, but we also have to accept some other “home truths” when assessing our performance in this area.

Stratifying tracing based on available data is, in my opinion best practice, but this approach should always consider that those individuals who are the most difficult to trace, are also in all likelihood those who are in dire circumstances and would benefit from payouts the most. (Individuals in lower income brackets have less data available due to lower economic activity, move frequently, change phone numbers frequently etc)

Financial literacy, indebtedness and “family taxes” remain pervasive issues in our society which large payments often amplify. The negative publicity resulting from this also casts a deep shadow on the industry, and unfairly so.

Ideally:

• Tracing campaigns can include multiple trace types, and providers with different competencies and footprints. This approach limits the bias that “cherry picking” of easy cases unfortunately introduces. I.e. cherry picking of easy cases is ultimately ignoring the difficult ones where the largest social impact can be made.

• Financial literacy programs are available through many financial institutions as part of their various social commitments, in fact, many of our companies have in-house programs and funding available to provide this service. Adding this as a tick box on a claim will not address the issue but, offering simple to use linkages to services (without strings attached) will.

• Education Funds do work in supporting minor dependent and avoiding the drain that “family taxes” place on the benefit and the ability of caregivers to ensure dependents are taken care of.

How mature is our governance processes? 

We do live in a society where fraud and corruption are commonplace. The natural response to this is to add layers of administration and requirements to a process to make it foolproof. Whilst this response is logical, the impact is that poor/unemployed beneficiaries are effectively asked to do the risk management on behalf of the industry, increasing travel, negative perceptions about the industry, and creating gaps for fraudsters to “facilitate” claims.

Ideally:

• The size of benefits must determine the complexity of the requirements.

• Certifications (which require extensive travel to obtain) can and should be replaced with external validations on; ID, bank accounts, phone numbers, tax numbers etc

• New technologies can streamline claim processes by conducting remote authentication of claimants through voice, photo and biometrics

Conclusion

• Resolving unclaimed benefits is a societal imperative, especially against the backdrop of high unemployment and the “social state”

• This objective requires dogged determination and refined strategies, these should however still be subject to all the ESG lenses which we view businesses through.

• The best price is not always the right fit, as one needs to consider the impact of cherry picking on the most vulnerable people in our society who are not easily located due to their financial and social circumstances.

• Leveraging infrastructure, know-how, and experience is crucial in finding solutions. It is therefore recommended to have multiple partners.

• Risk management in claim processes needs a balanced approach, limiting where possible, complex and onerous claim requirements.

ENDS