MANILA – The Social Security System (SSS) released PHP31.69 billion in calamity loans to 2.12 million member-borrowers, and PHP1.71 billion in unemployment insurance benefits (UIB) to 136,000 claimants last year in support of government efforts to mitigate the economic shock of the coronavirus disease 2019 (Covid-19) pandemic on wage earners.
In its report to Finance Secretary and Social Security Commission (SSC) Chairman Carlos Dominguez III, the SSS said it also released PHP30.47 billion in salary loans to 1.28 million members, and extended pension loans totaling PHP3.4 billion to 74,799 borrowers in 2020.
The SSS said it saw a marked increase in the number of borrowers under its Calamity Loan Assistance Program (CLAP) after President Rodrigo Duterte declared a state of calamity nationwide as a result of the Covid-19 crisis.
The UIB claims rose nearly 10 times from 15,000 claimants availing of PHP178 million in benefits in 2019 to 136,000 beneficiaries claiming a combined PHP1.71 billion in 2020.
Pension loan releases last year increased by 34.6 percent from the PHP2.52 billion reported in 2019 because of the enhanced guidelines issued by the SSS, which increased the maximum loanable amount under this program from PHP32,000 to PHP200,000 starting in October 2019.
“From a robust securities placement in 2019, our investible funds for 2020 were shifted to member loans, particularly for calamity loans,” the SSS said in its report.
Loan releases to members increased by more than half from PHP40.59 billion in 2019 to PHP62.35 billion last year, but member loan collections from January to November 2020 dropped by 17.6 percent to PHP32.44 billion amid the implemented moratoriums and the pandemic-induced recession, the SSS said.
The SSS generated a contribution-benefit surplus of PHP62 billion in 2019, while preliminary data indicate a surplus of PHP11.92 billion last year despite the pandemic, it added.
Preliminary data also show that SSS contributions reached PHP204.75 billion in 2020, down by 7.1 percent from the previous year’s collection of PHP220.38 billion, and by 17 percent from its target of PHP246.83 billion.
The drop was the result of 1.5 million members unable to pay their contributions because of Covid-related job losses.
The SSS paid benefits amounting to PHP192.84 billion last year based on preliminary data. This was 2 percent below the PHP196.76 billion in benefit payments reported in 2019.
Operating expenses of the pension fund declined by 17.7 percent to PHP8.18 billion in 2020 from PHP9.93 billion the previous year.
For its digitalization efforts, the SSS reported a 140.8-percent increase in the electronic My.SSS registrations to 3.27 million in 2020 from 1.36 million transactions in 2019.
Also, 99.3 percent of transactions on SSS contributions in 2020 were coursed through electronic channels, it said.
Last year, the SSS mandated the online filing and processing of salary and calamity loans, UIBs, sickness claims reimbursement for employers, applications for SSS number, sickness notification, maternity notification, filing of retirement benefit claim with electronic disbursement, and the enrollment of the disbursement account with PESONet and other digital payment channels.
The SSS reported 7.38 million downloads of its SSS mobile app last year, which represents a 221.2-percent increase from the 2.3 million downloads in 2019.
Last year, the SSS also helped process and generate disbursement files for approved applications under the Small Business Wage Subsidy Program (SBWS), which released a total of PHP45.61 billion in assistance to 3.1 million qualified workers as part of the government’s Covid-19 response efforts. (PR)
