State-run Social Security System (SSS) has announced that it has approved P15.63 billion in calamity assistance loans to help ease the financial woes of its members amid the Covid-19 pandemic.
In a news statement issued on Tuesday, the Department of Finance (DOF) said the pension fund has approved more than 1.03 million applications for its Calamity Loan Assistance Package (CLAP) for the Covid-19 pandemic since its online filing was launched last June 15.
SSS President and Chief Executive Officer Aurora Cruz Ignacio said from June 15 to July 28, CLAP applications are averaging at P15,144 per individual claim.
The calamity loan for Covid-19, which started in June is set to run until September 14 this year. Online application, however, is now mandatory.
President Duterte declared a state of national calamity in the country last March 16 amid the contagion.
The calamity loan for Covid-19 carries a 6-percent interest per annum commencing on the fourth month with a 27-month term, inclusive of a three-month moratorium.
In line with the instructions of Finance Secretary and Social Security Commission (SSC) Chairman Carlos Dominguez III for the SSS to digitize its system in order to speed up the grant of loans and benefits to its members, Ignacio said that CLAP claims were released since June 28 via “cheque-less” disbursement through the Development Bank of the Philippines PesoNet accredited banks.
In terms of unemployment insurance benefits, the agency extended P190.02 million from July 1 to 27 this year to help workers hit hard by the economic fallout from the pandemic.
For the same period, applications approved by SSS for the unemployment insurance benefits have reached 14,186.
Since SSS started accepting applications from August 2019 up to July 27, a combined total of P544.37 million in unemployment insurance benefits were extended by the agency as it granted 43,347 applications.
Premium-paying SSS members can also avail of the unemployment insurance benefits equivalent to half of their average monthly salary credit (AMSC) for a maximum of two months if they are involuntarily separated because of the economic downturn, calamity/disaster, redundancy, installation of labor-saving devices, retrenchment or downsizing, closure or cessation of operation, and disease or illness of these employees whose continued employment is prohibited by law, or is prejudicial to their, or their co-employees’ health.
They should have also paid the requisite minimum number of monthly contributions for three years to qualify for this unemployment benefit, 12 of which should have been made in the 18-month period immediately preceding the month of involuntary separation.
The unemployment insurance benefit is one of the landmark provisions of Republic Act (RA) 11199, or the Social Security Act of 2018.
Since July 15, online filing for unemployment insurance benefits have been made mandatory to speed up the application process.
Funeral benefit claims for SSS member-claimants is also set to be made mandatory this month, Ignacio said.
She added that the SSS has also started using electronic payment systems in releasing the unemployment insurance and funeral benefits to its members.
The agency has also made mandatory the online filing of SSS retirement benefit for members who are at least 65 years old, for overseas Filipino workers and for voluntary members who are 60 to 64 years old, as well as the online applications for salary loans and online filing of sickness benefit reimbursement for employers.
“The SSS has issued circulars covering the guidelines for the online filing of funeral benefits and the enhanced filing of retirement benefit claims to make them operational,” Ignacio added.