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Age fraud trap: Why parents are faking age to feed unemployed graduates
We can no longer view retirement stability and youth employment as separate issues. They are deeply bound together. Until our economic policies successfully create actual jobs for the younger generation, retirement in Uganda will remain a distant myth, writes Ian Manzi
Ian Manzi. (Courtesy)
By: Admin ., Journalist @New Vision
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OPINION
By Ian Manzi
A very strange and worrying crisis is unfolding across Uganda’s government offices and corporate boardrooms today. The Directorate of Government Analytical Laboratory recently asked Parliament for sh2 billion to buy a forensic age-detection machine. This request follows an unprecedented wave of referrals from the National Identification and Registration Authority (NIRA), which is currently overwhelmed by senior workers desperately trying to alter their birth certificates.
As these professionals approach the mandatory retirement age of 60 years, many resort to forged documents and court affidavits to make themselves look five or ten years younger. When successful, educated professionals turn to criminal forgery just to keep their desks, it exposes a terrifying truth: retirement has become the ultimate economic nightmare for the Ugandan workforce.
This panic is driven by a massive generational breakdown that has made retirement completely impossible. In the past, parents naturally expected that by the time they reached old age, their children would be independent, grown up, and perhaps even supporting them. Today, the exact opposite is true. Because of massive youth unemployment, parents who planned to spend their lifelong savings only on themselves find themselves forced to feed, house, and support their adult children who graduated but have no jobs.
Instead of resting after decades of hard labor, retirees are watching their terminal benefits and National Social Security Fund (NSSF) payouts vanish. This money, meant to act as an old-age safety net, is instead spent to cover their adult children’s basic needs, wedding budgets, or failing start-up businesses. A university degree has transitioned from being a ticket to financial freedom into an expensive piece of paper that leads an unemployed graduate right back to their parents' dining table.
As these professionals approach the mandatory retirement age of 60 years, many resort to forged documents and court affidavits to make themselves look five or ten years younger. When successful, educated professionals turn to criminal forgery just to keep their desks, it exposes a terrifying truth: retirement has become the ultimate economic nightmare for the Ugandan workforce.
This panic is driven by a massive generational breakdown that has made retirement completely impossible. In the past, parents naturally expected that by the time they reached old age, their children would be independent, grown up, and perhaps even supporting them. Today, the exact opposite is true. Because of massive youth unemployment, parents who planned to spend their lifelong savings only on themselves find themselves forced to feed, house, and support their adult children who graduated but have no jobs.
Instead of resting after decades of hard labor, retirees are watching their terminal benefits and National Social Security Fund (NSSF) payouts vanish. This money, meant to act as an old-age safety net, is instead spent to cover their adult children’s basic needs, wedding budgets, or failing start-up businesses. A university degree has transitioned from being a ticket to financial freedom into an expensive piece of paper that leads an unemployed graduate right back to their parents' dining table.
This dependency creates a vicious, unbreakable cycle that completely paralyzes Uganda's labour market.
Because older workers are carrying the immense financial burden of supporting a household of unemployed adults, they simply cannot afford to step down. They use every administrative loophole including the shocking manipulation of their own biodata to cling to their payrolls. However, by refusing to vacate these senior offices, the older generation keeps the job market completely blocked.
Millions of brilliant, young Ugandan graduates cannot find formal employment because the exact positions they are qualified to occupy are still held by their own parents. The youth remain unemployed because the parents cannot leave, and the parents cannot leave because the youth are unemployed.
We can no longer view retirement stability and youth employment as separate issues. They are deeply bound together. Until our economic policies successfully create actual jobs for the younger generation, retirement in Uganda will remain a distant myth. Parents will be forced to fight the calendar and work until the day they die, just to fund an endless cycle of family survival.
Because older workers are carrying the immense financial burden of supporting a household of unemployed adults, they simply cannot afford to step down. They use every administrative loophole including the shocking manipulation of their own biodata to cling to their payrolls. However, by refusing to vacate these senior offices, the older generation keeps the job market completely blocked.
Millions of brilliant, young Ugandan graduates cannot find formal employment because the exact positions they are qualified to occupy are still held by their own parents. The youth remain unemployed because the parents cannot leave, and the parents cannot leave because the youth are unemployed.
We can no longer view retirement stability and youth employment as separate issues. They are deeply bound together. Until our economic policies successfully create actual jobs for the younger generation, retirement in Uganda will remain a distant myth. Parents will be forced to fight the calendar and work until the day they die, just to fund an endless cycle of family survival.