What do I do if I don’t agree with the contents of my Council return or if I don’t receive my return?
Rule number one: Be proactive!
If you don’t receive a return from the Council, that does not mean you do not need to make payment, and, in addition, the longer you take to sort out the account, the more penalties you may incur. We therefore encourage you to be proactive and not delay in contacting the Council.
It is the employer's responsibility to inform the Council if the information on the return is inaccurate.
It is also an employer's obligation to furnish the Council with a remittance advice indicating in respect of which Employee payment was made, for which beneficiary, what amount towards each beneficiary, and the time period for which the payment is made.
Please be reminded that the Bargaining Council is the Collecting Agent, who collects the funds on behalf of the Union, The Employer Organisation, The Pension Fund, and the Sick Pay and Sick Pay Benefit Funds and pay their contributions over to them, on a monthly basis.
Non-payment of pension contributions is a criminal offence. As per Financial Services Laws Amendment Act 2013 “any person who fails to pay any contribution to a Pension Fund within 7 days from the last day of the month in which such contributions are due, is guilty of an offence and liable on conviction to a fine not exceeding R10,000,000.00 or to imprisonment for a period not exceeding 10 years, or both a fine and imprisonment.”
Therefore if you did not receive a return from the Council or you don’t agree with your return make sure to make payment as usual and submit a remittance advice to the Council with your payment. Should any details change, kindly notify the Council by emailing the details of the change to amend@hcsbc.co.za, within 14 (fourteen) days of such change taking place.
You are also welcome to reach out to your EOHCB representatives to assist you with the above processes.
