IF you are a worker in the private sector, whether as employee or self-employed and you are not yet over 60 years old, you are compulsorily covered under the Social Security System (SSS).
If you are employed in a private company, whether as a permanent, temporary or provisional worker, your company or employer is obliged to report you for coverage with the SSS within 30 days from the first day of your employment.
Employed workers include household helpers, who are defined as persons who render domestic or household services exclusively to a household employer who is not a relative, and whose salary is not less than P1,000. Under the Kasambahay law of 2014, the minimum wage for household helpers had gone up to P2,500 in the National Capital Region, P2,000 for cities and first-class municipalities, and P1,500 for other municipalities.
The social-security coverage of self-employed persons is also compulsory under the law. Self-employed persons include a) self-employed professionals; b) partners and single proprietors of businesses; c) actors, actresses, directors, scriptwriters and news correspondents, who do not fall within the definition of “employee” as provided in Section 8 (d) of the Social Security law; d) professional athletes, coaches, trainers and jockeys; and e) individual farmers and fishermen, as well as other informal sector workers, such as vendors, pedicab drivers, etc. The compulsory coverage of self-employed persons takes effect on their registration with the SSS.
If you devote yourself to fulltime management of your household and family affairs and you are married to a member of the SSS, you may be covered on a voluntary basis. You may register as a nonworking spouse, provided you are not over 60 years old.
Similarly, Filipinos recruited by foreign-based employers for employment abroad may be covered by the SSS on a voluntary basis. This pertains to land-based overseas Filipino workers.
Filipino seafarers deployed to foreign vessels by manning agencies, on the other hand, are covered under the SSS, as provided for by Rule 8 of the Department of Labor and Employment Department Order (DO) 130 series of 2013. This provision of DO 130 requires that seafarers hired by foreign vessels through Philippine-based manning agencies should be provided social-security benefits under the SSS law with the manning agencies serving as the employers.
If you work for a foreign government or international organization, or their wholly owned instrumentality operating in the Philippines or employing Filipinos outside the Philippines, you may be covered under the SSS for as long as there is an agreement between the foreign government or entity and the Philippine government that is in accordance with the provisions of the SSS law.
So, given all these pieces of information, are you covered by the SSS?
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For more information about the SSS and its programs, call our 24-hour call center at (632) 920-6446 to 55, Monday to Friday, or send an e-mail to member_relations@sss.gov.ph.
Susie G. Bugante is the vice president for public affairs and special events of the Social Security System. Send comments about this column to susiebugante.bmirror@gmail.com.