The Social Security System (SSS) reported that it has earned some P1.31 billion for the first three months of implementation of its loan restructuring program (LRP) that also benefited some 200,000 of its members.
SSS President and Chief Executive Officer Emmanuel F. Dooc said the LRP, which was offered starting April 2, already condoned more than P3.35 billion worth of penalties from 200,960 availees in the April to end-June period.
“When we launched the second LRP in April, we expected to attract 250,000 availees, but to our surprise, we’ve already reached the 200,000-mark in just three months of LRP implementation and we still have nearly three months to accept more LRP applications,” Dooc said.
The program covers all member-borrowers who have past due loans such as salary, emergency, educational, study now pay later plan, voc-tech, Y2K and investments incentive soan. Borrowers must be residing or working in a calamity or disaster-stricken area declared by the National Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Council (NDRRMC), or in the case of Ondoy, by the National Government.
”LRP is serving its purpose of providing immense financial relief to our members by giving them the opportunity to clean up their loan records. So I’m encouraging all member-borrowers with past-due short-term loans to avail of the program on or before October 1,” Dooc added.
To qualify, the loan must be past due for at least six months from the start of the second implementation of LRP. Members granted with any final benefit claim prior to the LRP availment period and those who committed fraud against the SSS are disqualified from the program.
“This is to remind our members that they are no longer qualified to avail of the second LRP if they have previously availed of the first LRP in 2016,” he said.
Dooc also reminded its members that all SSS branches are now accepting scanned copies of letters of authority (LOA) received through electronic mail (email) by representatives of member-borrowers applying for the LRP.
“Authorized representatives are required to submit the email request of the member-borrower, scanned copies of LOA and member-borrower’s two valid identification cards (IDs), photocopy of their two valid IDs and clear copy of email showing both the sender’s and recipient’s email address,” he added.
In March this year, the SSS announced that it will be offering once again its LRP to delinquent member-borrowers, with the agency expecting to generate P1.2 billion from the program and condone some P2.85 billion in penalties.
The re-implementation of the LRP was offered from April 2 until October 2 this year, giving delinquent members six months to avail themselves of the service.
The first implementation of the program was undertaken in April 2016, with an availment period of one year, and was able to help around 800,000 individual member-borrowers. It generated P6 billion for the pension fund.
Dooc pointed out that the decrease in expected income for the LRP re-implementation was based on the number of member-borrowers, which has decreased since the previous LRP offering.
The LRP has an affordable amortization, which has a lower interest rate of 3 percent, compared to the interest-rate levels of other loan packages reaching 10 percent.