Part Two
Social insurance is a basic right of every working Filipino. Regardless of the nature and place of work, the Social Security System (SSS) reaches out to all workers, whether they are in fishing communities or farmlands in remote areas of the Philippines, or in domestic and professional jobs abroad. Universal and equitable social protection, part of the SSS vision, means providing social-security coverage that is accessible and meaningful to all sectors of society.
In 2010 the SSS had about 28.8 million members. Five years later, membership has grown to 33.6 million, with more than 5 million new members added. Of this 5 million, about 818,000 come from the informal sector (IS), which has been a special focus of this administration.
Cognizant of this sector’s employment generation and economic contribution-capacity, the SSS deemed it urgent and necessary to extend social-security coverage to IS workers. But to do so would require creative approaches that recognize the irregularity of their incomes and the nature of their businesses; require partnerships with organized informal-sector groups (ISGs) so that there are identified and shared responsibilities; and allow for “wholesale” social-security coverage, instead of going after individual workers on a piecemeal basis.
Several coverage and collection programs have been implemented over the recent past years, all aimed at making the payment scheme affordable for this vulnerable sector.
- Reaching out to the informal sector through the AlkanSSSya Program. The name AlkanSSSya is derived from the term alkansya, meaning coin bank, with a triple-S to connote the SSS as the implementing agency. It is a micro-savings scheme designed to instill and develop the financial discipline of saving, and is intended to fit their way of life by making saving for monthly contributions affordable at only P11 a day. Under the program, the workers are registered as self-employed members and required to meet the P3,000 monthly salary credit (MSC), which translates to a P330 monthly contribution. However, whenever affordable, these workers can declare a higher monthly income than the required minimum, and contribute at an MSC level higher than P3,000.
- Various ISGs, such as tricycle drivers, market vendors, golf caddies and so on, have join the program. Since the start of the AlkanSSSya Program up to end-2015, the SSS has been able to partner with 1,306 different groups and successfully registered 115,768 members thus far, with many more workers identified as potential coverable members. In terms of contributions, at least P267 million has been collected, with an average monthly collection of about P7.42 million.
- Reaching out to cooperatives and microfinance institutions. The SSS expanded its membership coverage by forging partnerships with non-governmental organizations whose members are eligible for coverage. Since 2012, close to 30 memorandums of agreement have been signed with various cooperatives/associations/microfinancing institutions (MFIs) to become servicing partner agent (SPA) and/or collecting partner agent (CPA) of the SSS.
- The SPA agreement involves cooperatives and MFIs enjoining their members to register for SSS membership, and perform related services, such as registration and reporting and other noncollection services. For CPA arrangements, the cooperative or MFI receives payments for contributions and loans so that their members do not need to go to banks or other third-party collecting agents. In return, the SSS compensates its partners with a service fee for each successful transaction for their members. These arrangements help decongest SSS branches from crowds of transacting members and, at the same time, free up branch personnel from screening members’ documents or conducting fact-of-death investigations for funeral claims.
- Reaching out to farmers and emergency workers through contribution-subsidy program. In the interest of economic and social justice, the SSS came up with a contribution-subsidy program, initially
with farmers as the pilot target
Under the program, the farmer-member will shoulder 50 percent of the contribution, and the government or non-governmental the entity matches this with a corresponding 50-percent share. - Reaching out to job order and contractual workers in government. In the past, coverage of this type of workers has been on an individual basis, and although mandatory under the social-security law, membership has been on a voluntary, or “as they come” basis. In 2013, in order to reach out to more JO/C workers more effectively, the SSS decided to partner with government agencies that engage the services of the said workers under the KaltaSSS-Collect Program. According to the Civil Service Commission 2010 Inventory of Government Personnel, there are about 110,000 job order and contractual workers engaged by government agencies.
- Reaching out to workers in unbanked areas. After expanding its network of tie-ups with the informal sector, MFIs and cooperatives, the SSS then rolled out new linkages with local government units (LGUs) in “unbanked” areas or provinces that do not have accessible banking systems and payment facilities. Called MuniSSSipyo-Collect Program, this is an alternative means to sustain active SSS membership by making regular payment of contributions and loans convenient and within reach. The partnerships with LGUs, especially those on island-provinces and far-flung areas, strengthen the campaign to provide social protection to workers and their beneficiaries regardless of geographic location and economic status.
To be continued