Evaluation of factors affecting voluntary interest of midterm access of retirement benefits: a case study of Makerere University Retirement Benefits Scheme.
Abstract
The study was conducted to evaluate factors affecting interest of midterm access of retirement benefits. Primary data was collected within Makerere University from its selected colleges and sample size of 100 respondents was selected to fill out questionnaires, The objectives of the study were to examine Socio-economic, demographic, years in service and investment options how they all relate to one’s opinion about midterm access of retirement benefits among Makerere University staff. Univariate analysis, cross tabulation and logistic regression were performed on the variables in the study using Stata 15.
In the study, majority of the respondents were male (53%), (84%) of the members were interested and (16%) were not interested in midterm access of retirement benefits, age group
36-50 was dominant at (47%), lecturers also dominated the designation group at (47%), members with <4 dependents at (46%), the real estate business was more preferred (38%) and Farming/Poultry investment option was less preferred at (13%). Furthermore, most of the respondents had membership in MURBS (93%), also most of them understood scheme rules
(56%), Still most of them had worked with Makerere University for >13 years. In the bivariate analysis it was discovered that variables Age, Gender, Investment option and Years in service were statistically significantly associated with one’s opinion on midterm access of retirement benefits. In the multivariate analysis a member’s opinion on midterm access was directly influenced by one’s age group and years in service.
According to the research findings it recommended that retirement schemes should set attractive interest rates on savings.
There is need to members to venture into investments which bring daily income so they don’t opt for midterm access and misuse funds meant to take them through their retirement