Half of pensioners on a private pension received less than R4 000 in their bank accounts in August. And the average private pension of R5 873 is about 45 percent of the average salary, the latest data from BankservAfrica shows.
The Financial Services Board estimates that close to 810 000 people receive a private pension.
The BankservAfrica Private Pension Index (BPPI) registers over 655 000 pensions every month, meaning it records in its data 81 percent of people who receive a private pension.
The BPPI data shows that pensions showed real (after-inflation) increases of 3.8 percent, year on year.
“The increases in private pension payments have generally been higher than the increases in salaries for working people, although pensions are still less than half of what salaries are,” the survey says.
The BPPI data shows that there has been a big increase in the number of pensioners receiving pensions of between R25 000 and R50 000 – this is up 59 percent from January 2013, from roughly 4 600 pensioners to about 7 400 pensioners in 20 months.
The number of pensioners who get between R10 000 and R25 000 a month has grown by 53 percent in the same period.
The fastest growing age group in South Africa is of people over 65 years old. This group grew by 3.3 percent over the last 12 months, while the overall population grew by only 1.7 percent. The group is becoming increasingly important to the economy, Bankserv says.
Only about five percent of this group still work for an income.