CLARK FREEPORT – A senior official of the Social Security System (SSS) has reported here plans to upgrade the pension of its retired members, amid the agency’s P368.7 billion “investable reserve funds” and P36.2 billion net income last year.
This, even as the SSS is now studying the possibility of granting moratorium on the loan payments of members affected by typhoon Yolanda in the Visayas. Briefing members of the Capampangans in Media, Inc. SSS Vice President for Public Affairs Marissu Bugante said that of the investible funds, P136.4 billion were invested in government securities, P94 billion in private securities, P72.6 billion in loans to members, and smaller amounts in real estate and banking.
Return of investment, she added, was estimated at 12 percent. She noted that SSS net income of P36.2 billion last year was 40 percent higher than the previous year, so that plans are afoot to increase the pensions of its retired members. She did not say, however, by how much the pensions would be hiked.
But despite the earning performance of SSS, Bugante noted that her agency has an “unfunded liability” of P1.3 trillion incurred in the last 20 years. “We have to do structural reforms and solve this imbalance,” she said to justify the need to increase the members’ contributions by at least three percent.
Despite this situation, Bugante said the SSS still has a “fund life that could last up to 2039. “Still, what we want is to prolong this fund life in perpetuity,” she stressed. At the same time, she also said the SSS is now considering granting a respite in the payment of loans obtained by members who were hit by typhoon Yolanda in the Visayas.
“That matter is now being discussed,” she added. This, as Bugante also urged SSS members “to capitalize on the advantages of the special Saturday schedule of SSS branches.” The Saturday office of the SSS was launched only recently in all the agency’s branches nationwide.
“Members visiting our branches on Saturdays can conduct transactions such as benefit claims and loans, application for the unified multi-purpose identification system card, and over-the-counter contribution payments.
This spares many of our members from having to file a leave from work to go to the SSS,” she said. Bugante noted that SSS records show it has 30 million which had contributed membership fees at one time or another, although it has only 12 million regular contributors.
In Central Luzon, SSS has about 1.26 million company and household employees account for 67 percent of the 1.88 million SSS members. Nearly 423,000 members in the region are self-employed, while 197,000 are voluntary members, she noted.
