FOUR years since the AlkanSSSya Program was started in Payatas, a large number of garbage pickers, street sweepers and landfill workers there have seen how their lives have changed by the small amounts that they save daily for their monthly Social Security System (SSS) contributions. They have been able to take out salary loans for immediate financial needs, educational loans for their children’s schooling, maternity benefits for childbirth and funeral grants for untimely deaths.
One story of hope is that of Letecia Constantinopla, a widow struggling to put a daughter through college, but often faced money shortages. A street sweeper and garbage picker at the Payatas landfill in Quezon City, Letecia earns a meager P350 per day, or around P2,100 per week. She supplements her income by running a sari-sari store in their small home and raising a few pigs in the backyard. The P2,000 monthly death-benefit pension that she receives from the SSS also helps them with daily expenses.
“It’s a good thing that my husband had SSS contributions when he was alive,” Letecia recounts. “He was employed for a time at a soft-drink company, then when he retired, he became a driver for a taxicab company, so he continuously had contributions to the SSS.”
Her late husband’s diligence in his SSS membership served Letecia well when he passed away, as she became a recipient of a death-pension benefit. Realizing the importance of the SSS, she signed up, too, as a self-employed member in 2004. Despite her low and irregular income, she managed to contribute at least the minimum amount on the months that she could afford to.
When the Payatas Alliance Multi-Purpose Cooperative (PAMC), of which she is a member, joined the AlkanSSSya Program in 2012, she was able to resume her contributions with the SSS. Through AlkanSSSya, the SSS microsavings scheme for informal-sector workers, Letecia and her Payatas coworkers are able to save small amounts in their own “piggy banks” in the AlkanSSSya unit that was driven on a truck to the Payatas landfill every day. With P12 to P20 savings per day, they are able to accumulate enough to meet their monthly SSS contributions, which PAMC officers count, record and remit to the SSS directly.
When SSS offered the Educational Assistance Loan Program (Educ-Assist) in 2012, Letecia decided to apply on behalf of her daughter, Jenel, 22, who was a first-year college student then at the Quezon City Polytechnic University (QCPU). Jenel used to take up Entrepreneurship at QCPU but shifted to Industrial Engineering. She takes night classes, from 5 to 9, so she can work part-time in the mornings.
Letecia’s application was subsequently approved. She was granted an initial P7,100 loan for Jenel’s first semester. The amount helped the bright and diligent college student to continue her studies. Three more loan releases came in November 2013 (in the amount of P7,100), May 2014 (P10,700) and November 2014 (P9,500), with the checks paid directly to the school.
Through the SSS, Letecia and her family have a good reason to be hopeful.
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For more details on SSS programs, members can drop by the nearest SSS branch, visit the SSS web site (www.sss.gov.ph), or contact the SSS call center at 920-6446 to 55, which accepts calls from 7 a.m. on Mondays all the way to 7 a.m. on Saturdays.
Susie G. Bugante is the vice president for public affairs and special events of the SSS. Send comments about this column to susiebugante.bmirror@gmail.com.