The Social Security System will collect higher monthly contribution from its members starting next year as part of the restructured rates and other reforms set under the Social Security Act of 2018.
The scheduled increase in the monthly contribution of members will take effect on January 2021.
Members’ monthly contribution will increase from 12 percent to 13 percent of basic salary but not to exceed the prescribed maximum monthly salary credit, SSS Bacolod Manager Ma. Sheila Galeno said.
Those who are paying the maximum monthly contribution of P2,400 will pay P2,600 starting January 2021, she added.
The higher contribution rate is part of the implementation of Republic Act No. 11199 or the Social Security Act of 2018, which seeks to offset the impact to the SSS Fund triggered by the P1,000 hike in the monthly pension of member-pensioners in 2017.
In a statement released to the media, SSS Chairman Carlos Dominguez said the increase in the monthly contribution will ensure the long-term viability of the pension fund and increase the benefits of the members or their beneficiaries.
Dominguez hopes that SSS members will consider the higher monthly contribution as their savings and safety net against the future hazards of sickness, maternity, disability, unemployment, old age, death, and other contingencies resulting to loss of income or financial burden.
Last year, SSS introduced the Unemployment Benefit for members who were involuntarily separated from their jobs, extending the MSC cap computation to P20,000.
The upgrade in the MSC cap increased the amount of benefits that members and/or their beneficiaries are entitled to receive for sickness, maternity, unemployment, retirement, disability, death, and funeral.
From January to October 2020, SSS disbursed a total of P159.47 billion in social security and employees’ compensation benefits to 3.56 million members and beneficiaries.
SSS member loan releases from January to November 2020 amounted to P58.03 billion availed by 3.20 million members while pension loan releases for the same period reached P3.17 billion availed by 69,813 retiree-pensioners.
SSS contribution collections from January to October 2020 amounted to P169.73 billion, or a decrease of 5.4 percent from the P179.34 billion collected in the same period last year, while the SSS calamity loans accounted for 52.3 percent of the total amount of member loan releases from January to November 2020. – MML
