GSIS loan disbursements reach P35 B in 11 months

MANILA, Philippines — The loan disbursements of government-run Government Service Insurance System (GSIS) reached P35 billion in the first 11 months last year due to a series of disasters that affected state workers.

The state-owned pension fund manager released emergency loans amounting to P3.8 billion to more than 176,845 active members from January to November last year as more typhoons battered the country last year.

GSIS said it also disbursed P61.8 million in pension emergency loans for 3,122 pensioners.

It added the amount social insurance claims and benefits paid booked a double-digit increase of 13 percent to P85 billion in the first 11 months of last year verses a year ago level of P75.1 billion.

The claims and benefits covered pension, retirement, life insurance, survivorship, disability, and funeral.

 The growth is attributed to the increased monthly old age pension of P7.5 billion covering 316,323 pensioners, survivorship benefit amounting to P338.2 million for 132,449 pensioners as well as life insurance and retirement claims of P616.8 million and P980.2 million, respectively.

 The number of life insurance claims processed also rose 21.2 percent to 82,936 from 68,401 while the number of retirement claims processed grew 9.2 percent to 34,489 from 31,592.

Jesus Clint Aranas, president and general manager of GSIS, said the higher payout in social insurance claims and benefits is “due to the strict monitoring of turnaround time (TAT) in the processing of these claims and the attainment of 100 percent efficiency in the posting of payments for premiums.”

“This year, we further reduced the TAT for the processing of retirement claims to 30 days, which is even more stringent than the 90 days prescribed under the law,” he said.

In September alone, he explained 88 percent of retirement or separation and life insurance claims’ transactions were processed within the 30-day period.

To fast track the processing of retirement claims, Aranas said GSIS undertakes a pre-reconciliation of premium and loan records of members who have filed a request or application for retirement, 90 days before the actual date of their retirement.

GSIS also regularly sends, through agency authorized officers, the list of possible retiring members or those who are turning 60 years old and above in a given year for the submission of their updated service records to GSIS.