ANGELES CITY –– Retired members of the Social Security System (SSS) could start receiving bigger monthly pensions this year, according to SSS Vice President for public affairs Marissu G. Bugante in the “Batirulan qng Don Juan” media forum last Friday organized by the Capampangan in Media, Inc. (CAMI) and the Holy Angel University (HAU) here.
Bugante said the “increase in the pension rates is now in the works” even as she declined to comment further or give more details. She said the SSS is now actively pursuing an amendment of its charter designed to improve the benefits extended to members as well as provide new benefi ts to bolster its campaign to attract more members including professionals and informal workers like those in the fishery and agriculture and even in the service sectors.
In line with this, the SSS has taken steps to sign up more bilateral pacts with foreign countries, particularly those
that host a growing number of overseas Filipino workers (OFWs). These agreements ensure the recognition and continuation of social security memberships of workers in the signatory countries, she said.
The SSS has also activated more branches and service offices raising to 225 areas the extent of its reach this year, she added. The SSS recently formalized a partnership with the Department of Agriculture to fully subsidize farmers’ monthly contributions as self-employed members, an arrangement that is expected to benefit up to 200,000 agricultural workers nationwide who may qualify for the subsidy as members of rural based organizations or community.
“Extension Workers” in good standing, with 100 farmers, have been selected as the first batch of beneficiaries in addition to the over 450,000 farmers and fisher-folk already covered by the System as self-employed members.
Bugante explained that the forthcoming increase in pension rates this year is part of the System’s overall thrust to improve the benefits and services for its active and retired members as well as extending its social security coverage to organized professionals and informal workers like members of cooperatives and other institutions.
She said the drive to expand its membership base, rationalization of financial activities and improved monitoring of employer compliance boosted the SSS’ collections by 9.4 percent to P103 billion from last year’s P94 billion.
This allowed it to give last year to its members more benefits aggregating P91.4 billion, up 9 percent from the preceding year’s P84 billion. But despite this, the SSS posted a 16 percent increase in its surplus of contributions over benefits to P11.6 billion in 2013 from P10 billion in 2012.
Net revenue for 2013 reached P38.3 billion, up 5.8 percent from P36.2 billion in the previous year on the back of P137.4 billion revenues, an increase of 75 percent year-on-year from P128.1 billion in 2012. Operating expenses eased by 1.1 percent to P7.6 billion from P7.7 billion, which Bugante traced to the cost-cutting measures implemented by the SSS management during the year, including the strict monitoring of pension releases thru the Annual Confirmation of Pensioners (ACOP).
Bugante explained that the ACOP program protects the fund from fraudulent claims by requiring pensioners to present themselves to the SSS or to their depository bank on the member’s birth month to prove their continued eligibility for pension.
She noted that for last year, a total of 4,331 pensioners no longer eligible for pension due to reasons such as death, remarriage or recovery from total disability, were taken of the list of pensioners enabling to register recurring savings of about P12 million a month.
