The draft legislation governing the first phase of the proposed two-pot system has been published and is open for comment.

The long-awaited draft legislation with more details regarding the roll-out of the "two-pot" retirement system was published on Friday afternoon.

The changes are being introduced in response to consumers' dire financial stress during the Covid pandemic, when many were unable to access their retirement savings despite having no other money to turn to.

The implementation date remains 1 March 2024, and the financial services industry has been working behind the scenes to put things in place.

Blessing Utete, managing executive of Old Mutual Corporate Consultants, says of the 650,000 members on its retirement fund book, he expects that about 350,000 will be able to access the minimum R2,000 on 1 March next year.

The 2023 Draft Revenue Laws Amendment Bill and 2023 Draft Revenue Administration and Pension Laws Amendment Bill together provide the necessary legislative amendments required to implement the first phase of the "two-pot" retirement system. Public comments received over the course of the past year have been taken into account.

The key changes introduced now include:

Seed capital: retirement fund members will be able to access "seed capital" or a portion of their available balance on 1 March 2024. The seed capital will be a minimum of R2,000...