Retirement funds overwhelmed by surge in withdrawal queries following two-pot system launch

John Maytham interviews Maya Fisher-French, Financial Consumer Journalist.

Listen below.

Reports indicate that retirement administrators were overwhelmed with withdrawal requests when the two-pot system was implemented on Monday:

• By midday on 3 September, Sanlam’s WhatsApp line had received over 84,000 messages, compared to its daily average of about 18,000.
• On 2 September, Sanlam Life and Savings call centre fielded 15,000 calls. The majority of these inquiries were related to the two-pot system.
• From 2 September to 5pm on 3 September, the Sanlam Corporate client call centre received just over 5,500 calls and processed a similar number of two-pot withdrawal requests.
• Old Mutual reported 93,000 interactions with its WhatsApp channel on Monday, along with thousands of calls to its call centre, which it states is being managed effectively.

RELATED: Two-pot retirement system: Delays expected in payments from ‘savings pot’

"At this stage we're getting little bits and pieces from the various retirement administrators and I think a lot of it is simply asking questions."

- Maya Fisher-French, Financial Consumer Journalist

Many retirement portals faced difficulties managing the high volume of traffic and responded by posting holding statements on their websites to inform users of the delays.

This surge in activity occurred despite warnings about the potential tax implications and the effect on members’ retirement benefits.

Maya Fisher-French notes that many schemes have anticipated encountering backlogs and technical issues. 

As a result, they have delayed opening up for applications to manage these potential challenges more effectively.

"Only once all of them are really open and running, will we get a really good sense."

- Maya Fisher-French, Financial Consumer Journalist

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