Active member: Someone currently paying into one of our schemes.

Asset: Anything owned that has (commercial) value. It can be financial in nature (money, stocks, bonds, shares, invoices, securities), physical (buildings, machinery, cars, land), or qualitative (qualities, skills, things of great intrinsic value).

Basic salary: the amount paid to an employee before any extras are added or taken off, such as reductions because of pensions schemes or an increase due to transport allowances.

Casual workers: Workers who are not part of the permanent workforce, but who supply services on an irregular or flexible basis, often to meet a fluctuating demand for work.

Deferred Member: Someone who has stopped paying into the scheme, but who retains pension rights in the scheme as they have not yet received a pension. The deferred member will be paid their pension when they reach the age of retirement i.e. 60 years.

Deferred Pension: A member, who has at least 5 years scheme membership but has not reached the age of 45 and wants to retire on his free will, can only be paid Deferred Benefit upon attainment of age 45.

Defined benefit: A type of pension scheme where the amount paid out to you as benefit payments is based on a defined formula which takes into account factors such as age, salary at the point of termination and length of service.

Defined contribution scheme: A type of pension scheme, whereby the scheme does not guarantee the level of pension benefits at retirement and where the level of pension at retirement depends on the amount of contributions paid into the scheme.

Full Annual Pension: This is the entire pension as no portion of it was exchanged at any time for a lump sum or gratuity. The pensioner therefore receives the maximum pension monthly.

Gratuity: This benefit is paid when an employee resigns or is laid off, provided they have completed five or more years of service with the employer. It involves a one-off payment in which the entire sum is provided by the employer at once.

Gross Salary: The total amount paid to an employee as basic salary plus all other fixed allowances (e.g. transport allowance, responsibility allowance, professional allowance, residential allowance), but before any deductions are made for taxes, social security contributions.

Ill-Health Benefit: It is paid to a scheme member who by reasons of permanent physical or mental disability are unable to continue engaging in gainful employment. Qualification for this type of Benefit is determined by a Medical Board Report.

Liquidation: The winding up of a company that wishes to cease trading or has reached the point of being totally incapable of repaying debts. When this happens to a company they will go into liquidation or receivership.

Lump Sum: This is a single cash payment representing the full and final settlement of the claimable benefits.

Membership Card: This is basically for membership identification and contains the member unique identification number, the Social Security number which will allow you access to all your data and your account details.

Net Salary: This is the amount of take-home pay remaining after all deductions have been removed from a person's salary.

Next-of-Kin: A member's closest living relative.

Nominee: A person who is nominated by a scheme member to receive the Survivor’s benefit in the event they pass away.

Normal Retirement Benefit: Upon attainment of age 60 years, a scheme member has reached the statutory retirement age as per the national law and is entitled to his/her benefits irrespective of his/her employment status.

Optional Withdrawal: This benefit is payable to individuals made redundant at their workplaces. These individuals should have at least five years scheme membership (60 months contributions) and they should be at least 45 years old

Redundancy: Where a person’s services are terminated by the employer because of a restructuring. A person who is made redundant, will be eligible for the Optional Withdrawal benefits/ Redundancy benefit.

Retirement Age: The official or normal retirement age is 60 years as per the laws of the Gambia.

Survivors Benefits: When a scheme member dies in service, a Survivor's Benefit is paid to his/her survivors or beneficiaries through the Curator of Interstate Estate or alternatively through the Cadi for administration.

Voluntary retirement: Members who have not attained the normal retirement age of 60 years but wish to prematurely retire from work can do so at the age of 45 years or thereafter.

Withdrawal Benefit: This is paid to scheme members who are not in gainful employment and have attained the age of 45 years with at least five years scheme membership.