Workers derive a sense of empowerment from being able to provide for their personal, as well as their loved ones’, basic needs, and even the simple pleasures and luxuries that life has to offer. But when unforeseen contingencies strike, it can make them feel helpless and distressed at their mounting bills and financial obligations, especially when these events impair their ability to earn a living.
The Social Security System’s (SSS) tagline “Buti na lang may SSS” draws inspiration from the relief and assurance that members and beneficiaries experience upon their availment of benefits during times of financial contingencies such as sickness, maternity leave, disability, old age or retirement, and death.
Over the years, there has been a series of benefit enhancements in the SS program. Of course, the most recent and significant was the grant of across-the-board P1,000 additional benefit for pensioners in January. About 2.2 million pensioners immediately received the additional pension. Even new retirees will enjoy the additional P1,000 pension.
Central to boosting benefits of the pension fund is how well the SSS manages the four components of the pension fund’s finances, namely, contribution collections and investment income for the revenues side, and benefit payments and operating expenses for the expenditures side.
Members’ contributions are considered the lifeblood of the SSS, accounting for about 80 percent of total SSS revenues, while the remaining 20 percent come from earnings generated from SSS investments.
Since 2015, the SSS collection has increased by about 10 percent. From P132.6 billion in 2015, it jumped to P144.4 billion in 2016. Its estimated collection by end of 2017 is P159.5 billion, or a 10.5-percent increase from last year.
What did the SSS do to increase its collection? For one, it launched a program called Run Against Contribution Evaders (RACE), which runs after delinquent employers. Media has been supportive of its “Oplan Tokhang” against erring employers that it consistently features the arrest of court-convicted employers, sending a strong message to the public that those who violate the SS law will face the full force of the law. As of June, a total of 7,515 cases have been filed in court against delinquent employers.
SSS collection is expected to further increase with the soon-to-be implemented program called Warrant of Distraint, Levy and Garnishment (WDLG). This is a new means of collecting delinquent employer contributions. Similar to the tax collection of the Bureau of Internal Revenue, WDLG will allow the SSS to take real and personal properties as payment for unpaid contributions. The SSS will immediately implement the WDLG as soon as it is approved by the office of President Duterte.
However, the greater difficulty lies in collecting from SSS members who lack a regular source of income, are employed abroad, or working in the informal sector. The SSS has initiated various measures to address this, including expanding the number of SSS foreign offices catering to overseas Filipino workers; accreditation of cooperatives and microfinance institutions as SSS collecting agents to reach out to workers in hard-to-reach areas; and subsidy partnerships with various agencies, such as the International Labor Organization, which benefited thousands of emergency workers in typhoon-hit areas.
The SSS also launched the AlkanSSSya Program to make payment of monthly contributions less burdensome for self-employed and informal sector workers, as they needed to set aside only about P10 per day for their SSS savings. The AlkanSSSya Program covers a diverse range of informal-sector workers, such as farmers and fisherfolk, tricycle drivers, market vendors, garbage recyclers and even inmates engaged in handicraft-making and other livelihood programs during their imprisonment.
The AlkanSSSya Program is a signature collection program that recently bagged the 2017 Best Government Practice Award conferred by the Development Academy of the Philippines on October 17.
Despite these structural barriers to collection, the SSS work force remains undeterred and fully committed in carrying out its mission to provide social protection to Filipino workers. The SSS is proud of its 60 years of service as a steady shoulder of support for the Filipino worker in the face of financial contingencies.