Factors influencing member withdrawal from social security system in Tanzania: a case of National Social Security Fund (NSSF) in Dar es Salaam Region

Social security system through their different investments contributes significantly to employment creation, social welfare and economic stability across the nation. Social security relates with government part of collective measures established to ensure that members of society and organization in general are able to meet their basic needs and are mostly protected from the contingencies while facilitate pensioners to maintain a standard of living similar with social norms. The study employed explanatory study whereby the sample size of 167 respondents was drawn using convenience sampling technique. Data were collected using questionnaires and interview. The collected data collected for the study were analyzed qualitatively and quantitatively using SPSS, Ms-Excel and thematic analysis. Social economic, processing procedures and political stability was found the most important attribute that could motivate member attitude toward withdrawal from the system, as it create a lot of problems to member because of small rates of interest offered annually to members, the evasion of payment by premiums from employers as well as a social and economic motives such as, lack of level of income, lack of transparency, improper management, the delaying of benefits and disparities in risks covered to the retirees. Different strategies and efforts need to be taken by the government of Tanzania to ensure that members are able to access the services on time as much as possible, some kind of social protection, be able to continue to vulnerable despite of being impacted by huge poverty. A crucial policy need to be on the table to address how employees can access their benefit even before the retirement age so as to make member or employees be more secure against adversity and deprivation. It is recommended that social security system should take all the necessary mechanism to raise the level of processing procedures of pension benefits to the retirees. Such effort will in turn help the social security retain their member while increasing their capacity for investment. Lastly, the study recommends further studies to be conducted which would have more sample (i.e. respondents), more pension fund and that would include both fund for comparison purpose and to have more general liable results.