A deduction appearing on your payslip does not necessarily mean the money has reached your retirement account.
This is a warning Kenyan employees should take seriously, as the National Social Security Fund (NSSF) urges workers to verify their monthly pension contributions.
NSSF has directed salaried workers to compare their payslips with their NSSF contribution statements to establish whether employers are remitting all the money deducted from their salaries.
The advisory raises an important concern for employees across the country: what happens when an employer deducts NSSF contributions every month, but the payments fail to appear in a worker’s pension records?
NSSF says employees should not assume that deductions reflected on their payslips have automatically been credited to their accounts.
Instead, workers should independently verify their records and seek clarification whenever they identify missing payments.
Employees can start by accessing the official NSSF Member Self-Service Portal, where registered members can obtain their contribution statements.
The statement should then be compared against monthly payslips to establish whether the deductions made by an employer correspond with the contributions recorded by the Fund.
Workers can access the official portal through this link: https://selfservice.nssf.or.ke/member/
NSSF also provides mobile services through the USSD code *303#.
Employees should pay particular attention to months when their payslips show NSSF deductions, but their contribution statements do not reflect corresponding payments.
However, a missing entry does not automatically establish that an employer has withheld the money. Workers should first establish whether the payment is delayed or whether some contributions are being remitted through an approved Tier II retirement benefits arrangement.
NSSF has advised employees who identify missing contributions to contact their employers and request confirmation of the remittance.
Workers should begin by identifying the specific months affected and calculating the amounts deducted from their salaries.
They should then contact their human resources or payroll departments and request clarification on the missing payments.
Employees should also retain copies of their payslips, NSSF statements and any communication with their employers as supporting evidence.
Where the employer operates an approved Tier II arrangement, workers should confirm with the employer or the relevant retirement benefits scheme whether those contributions have been received.
If the discrepancy remains unresolved, employees can escalate the matter to NSSF through its official customer service channels or visit a branch for assistance.
Another important detail employees should understand is that NSSF contributions are shared between workers and their employers.
Under the Year Four contribution rates introduced in February 2026, both parties contribute six per cent of an employee’s pensionable earnings.
The contributions are divided into two categories, Tier I and Tier II.
Tier I covers the first Ksh9,000 of monthly pensionable earnings, while Tier II applies to earnings above Ksh9,000 up to the upper limit of Ksh108,000.
For example, an employee earning Ksh30,000 monthly should contribute Ksh1,800 towards NSSF.
The calculation is as follows:
The employer must then contribute an equal Ksh1,800, bringing the combined monthly retirement contribution to Ksh3,600.
This means that over 12 months, Ksh43,200 should be contributed towards the employee’s retirement savings, comprising both the employee’s and employer’s portions, assuming the same pensionable earnings throughout the year.
Employees should therefore verify not only their own deductions but also whether the employer’s matching contribution has been accounted for.
NSSF has also set an upper earnings limit of Ksh108,000 under the 2026 Year Four contribution structure.
Employees earning this amount or more contribute a maximum of Ksh6,480 monthly, with employers required to contribute an equal amount.
The combined maximum monthly contribution is therefore Ksh12,960 per employee.
Earnings above Ksh108,000 do not attract additional mandatory NSSF contributions under the current rates.
These figures can help higher-income employees establish whether their monthly statutory deductions are consistent with the applicable limits.
The advisory follows a separate warning issued by NSSF on November 9, 2026, directing employers to remit outstanding contributions deducted from employees’ October salaries.
The Fund reminded employers that monthly contributions must be remitted by the ninth day of the following month.
It further warned that late payments attract a penalty of five per cent of the outstanding amount for every month, or part of a month, that the money remains unpaid.
The penalty applies to delayed remittances, reinforcing the importance of employers submitting both employee deductions and their matching contributions within the stipulated period.
For employees, the latest warning is a reminder that pension contributions require regular monitoring rather than being left unchecked until retirement.
A payslip may show that money has been deducted, but the NSSF statement provides an important way of confirming whether the contribution has actually been recorded.
For every Kenyan employee, checking an NSSF statement could help uncover missing retirement contributions before the problem becomes harder to resolve.
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