Eligibility, grounds determine withdrawals

The Fiji National Provident Fund (FNPF) considers two important factors, eligibility and grounds for withdrawal, prior to releasing any member’s funds.

This was clarified by FNPF general manager member services Alipate Waqairawai during the organisation’s annual member forum at Koronivia on Tuesday.

“It all depends on the purpose on what are the grounds of withdrawal that you’re applying for,” he said.

“For example, if you want to do small repairs to your house, we allow up to $5000 but if you don’t have the eligibility that will not allow you to make a meaningful repair, it would be pointless reducing that small sum of money.

“So we would expect you to accumulate enough balances before you can make a meaningful impact in terms of the purpose that you want.” He said the maximum withdrawal for a funeral was about $2000.

“If you want to come in for a funeral, it’s $2000 per funeral. If two members from the same family are paying, it’s split into $1000-$1000, or only one member can take the $2000.

“Therefore, if there are four, they have to share in terms of $500 each. So those are some of the limits and some of the specific grounds of withdrawals.

“But at the end of the day, it’s about whether money is available in your general account or not. If not, then we cannot dip into your preserved account.

“The only time that we dip into your preserved account is when you want to build a house or (buy) land for the first time. That’s the only time a member is allowed to dip into their preserved account, but otherwise, all the other withdrawal grounds, you are just confined to what’s in your general account.”