Current staff | Continuation of medical aid benefits in the event of death of the main member |
Retired staff: Post retirement medical aid subsidy

Current staff

Staff on permanent conditions of service (including T3) are required to become members of the University's medical aid scheme unless they are a spouse/partner dependant on a registered South African medical aid scheme.

Staff on T2 conditions of service are required to become members of the University's medical aid scheme unless they provide proof of membership on own or partner/spouse's registered South African medical aid scheme.

Staff on T1 conditions of service do not qualify to belong to UCT's medical aid scheme, therefore any staff member changing from T2 or permanent conditions of service must transfer their medical aid membership to private capacity.

The current university scheme is Discovery Health, and staff may elect one of 19 options. In terms of the rules of the scheme, all contributions are paid by the employer. Staff will receive tax relief as determined by the South African Revenue Service (SARS). The cost of the medical aid premium is a deduction from the staff member's monthly salary. Where a staff member has changes to the plan selection or in his/her number of dependants during the course of the year, the medical aid premium will be adjusted accordingly.

Continuation of medical aid benefits in the event of death of the main member

Membership to the medical aid will continue, the spouse dependant (in the absence of a spouse dependant, the eldest child dependant) will become the main member. The UCT subsidy, calculated based on the deceased member's employment period, will be applied to the new membership.

Any adult dependant who is not a child of the main member at the time of death is not entitled to the subsidy but may continue on the membership. The subsidy will not extend to any dependant addition, i.e. child, grandchild, spouse. When a child dependant turns 21, the subsidy will fall away if there is already an adult dependant covered by the subsidy.

See: Post retirement medical aid subsidy for subsidy details.

Retired staff: Post retirement medical aid subsidy

With effect from 1 June 2000 the entitlement to the post retirement medical aid subsidy has been restricted to an accrual of 2% per year of service, up to a maximum of 50%, of the cost of the subscription for the UCT Medical Aid Scheme. For staff appointed before 31 May 2000 there is no link between medical aid subsidy and service and they are automatically entitled to the 50% subsidy on retirement.

The UCT Medical Aid Scheme is currently Discovery Health. The subsidised option for retirees is the Coastal Saver plan with maximum savings.

Subsidy is applied as per the membership size and the dependants listed as the time of retirement. Exceptions to this are:

• Only 1 adult dependant is covered on the subsidy (including the spouse/partner)
• No grandchild can be covered by the subsidy

The membership is managed by UCT, therefore members are required to sign a debit order instruction with UCT for the recovery of premiums. If the premiums fall behind by 3 months, the membership will be removed from the UCT account and transferred to private capacity.

If a spouse, partner, adult dependant, child or grandchild is added to the membership after retirement, the subsidy will not be extended to this dependant. When a child dependant turns 21, the subsidy will fall away if there is already an adult dependant (i.e. spouse or other adult) covered by the subsidy.

Any changes to the membership will continue to be managed via the UCT Healthcare Specialist:

Debra Meyer
Fax: 021 650-4780
Tel: 021 650-4001
E-mail: debra.meyer@uct.ac.za
Internal mail: Debra Meyer, Rm 113.1, Bremner Building

Page last updated: 13 April 2012

back to top