"Reasonable": SA Widow Takes Pension Fund to Court Over Mother-in-Law’s Share of R7.68M Payout

• A Gauteng woman challenged her mother-in-law's 10% cut of her late husband's R7.68 million pension payout in a High Court battle
• The Telkom Retirement Fund allocated the mother-in-law R768k despite no beneficiary nomination form left by the deceased
• The High Court found the fund made significant omissions when calculating the mother-in-law's financial dependency

A Gauteng widow took her mother-in-law to the High Court over a disputed share of her late husband's R7.68 million pension benefit. The case centred on whether the older woman's 10% allocation from the Telkom Retirement Fund was properly calculated or simply handed out without adequate investigation.

Because the deceased never submitted a beneficiary nomination form, the fund made its own allocations. It awarded the widow 50%, split 20% each between his two children, and gave his mother the remaining 10%, amounting to roughly R768,000. The mother-in-law later donated R100,000 to each grandchild, but that gesture did little to ease tensions.

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The widow argued the fund had not done enough to determine how financially dependent the mother-in-law actually was on her son. She proposed that the allocation be reduced to just 2%, pointing out that the older woman lived in a retirement village and received a monthly pension from both her own fund and that of her late husband, amounting to around R15 a month.

What the High Court found

The court agreed that the fund's process was flawed. It found that the estimated cost of future frail care, cited as a potential R20 per month, was not supported by any medical evidence. There was also no formal capital needs assessment or financial calculation to back up the 10% figure.

Critically, the fund had accepted a claim from the deceased's brother that he could not support their mother financially without verifying that claim with any documentation. The fund also failed to check whether the estate of the mother-in-law's late husband could provide her with additional financial support. The court described these as significant omissions.

The court acknowledged that the mother-in-law could legitimately be regarded as a future dependant, but ruled that any allocation had to rest on verified evidence. On that basis, the widow's proposed 2% figure was also rejected as insufficient justification.

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View the Instagram video below:

South Africans react to the case

The case prompted strong opinions online, with many viewers siding with the mother-in-law:

@perchestilo wrote:

"Mother-in-law is so kind to even give children R100k each aw bless her. May the court rule in her favor 🙏"

@dashofcool_ said:

"I would literally give her enough money, she gave birth to the father of my kids, she raised my partner!!!"

@mrsg_2512 commented:

"But 10% make sense"

@mrs_nems added:

"10% is reasonable hle. Why not let her have it. The mother in law raised the guy man come on"

@magayesphiwe noted:

"To men, I hope y'all see this"

@selinamaake concluded:

"10% of that amount is reasonable to a parent"

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Source: Briefly News