Employment-related factors influencing membership to voluntary pension schemes among national government civil servants in Kitui County

Abstract

The study was on employment- related factors influencing membership to voluntary pension schemes among national government civil servants in Kitui County. The target population was civil servants performing national government functions i.e functions that are not devolved to the County Government of Kitui. It however excluded employees of parastatals and those serving under the National Police Service Commission. In particular the researcher sought to establish whether the independent variables i.e. retirement financial education, employment income, and defined benefits pension scheme influence the dependent variable (membership to voluntary pension schemes). The research used descriptive research design. The population size was 2,290 from which a sample size of 114 (5% of the population) was identified using the stratified random sampling technique. Questionnaires were used to collect primary data from the respondents. The collected data were analyzed in both qualitative and inferential statistics using SPSS data analysis computer application. The key findings were that employment income was the most influential factor for membership to voluntary pension schemes among national government civil servants in Kitui County. Retirement financial education was the second most influential factor for membership to voluntary while defined benefits scheme was the least influential among the factors studied. Further, the study established that there is a strong positive correlation r(112) = 0.846, p<0.05, between increased retirement financial education and membership to voluntary pension schemes among national government civil servants; most workers did not have enough income to enable them enroll with voluntary pension schemes and that there is a significant relationship between r(112) = 0.632, p<0.05 employment income and membership to voluntary pension schemes among national government civil servants and that expected retirement financial benefits from the government was not adequate to meet their financial needs once they retire. There was a strong positive relationship r (112) = 0.746, p<0.05 between defined benefits pension scheme and membership to voluntary pension schemes among national government civil servants. The independent variables were significant at 0.05% significant level (p=0.004, p= 0.000, and p=0.001) respectively and that the factors predicted implementation of strategic plan significantly. The study recommended that the civil servants should be educated more on the benefits of the voluntary pension scheme so as to encourage them to enroll, the government should increase the salary of civil servants so that they can afford to join voluntary pension schemes, and that the retirement financial benefits from the government should be increased to meet their financial needs once they retire.