1m NSF members stop contributions

Around 1 million members of the National Savings Fund (NSF) have stopped making contributions to the fund due to their declining income caused by the adverse impact of the prolonged Covid-19 pandemic, said the fund's secretary-general Jaruluk Ruangsuwan.

The fund has around 2 million members. They are workers aged 15 and above and are not members of the social security fund, the government pension fund or the provident fund, Ms Jaruluk added.

Around half of the NSF members stopped making contributions to the fund since last year. Despite this stoppage of contributions, the fund still gained 60,000 new members last year.

Ms Jaruluk said the pandemic had adversely hit low-income individuals.

The fund currently has a total of 10 billion baht. Last year it invested most of this on highly stable assets, with 7% invested in stocks.

The NSF is considering amending the related law to extend the maximum age of the members to 65 from the current 60.

Currently 17 million out of 37 million workers are in the saving systems for retirement such as the social security fund, the government pension fund or the provident fund.

For the other 20 million, 2 million are with NSF, 3 million volunteered to make contributions to the social security fund and the remaining14 million are not in any system.

The state has provided contributions to NSF members, according to their age. Members aged between 15 and 30 will gain state contributions at a rate of 50% of their savings but not over 600 baht per year.

Those aged between 30 and 50 will gain a contribution at a rate of 80% of their savings but not over 960 baht per year, while those aged between 50 and 60 will gain a contribution of 100% of their savings but not over 1,200 baht per year.