MANILA, Philippines - The Social Security System has collected P5.32 billion in contributions from members in Southern Luzon in the first half, eight percent higher than the P4.91 billion reported in the same period a year ago.
Emilio De Quiros Jr., SSS president and chief executive, said in a statement that contributions from large accounts or companies with at least 100 employees reached P3.42 billion or 65 percent of total. This was five percent more than the P3.26-billion large accounts collection in Southern Luzon for the first semester last year.
On the other hand, contributions from employers with less than a hundred employees as well as those from self-employed and voluntary SSS members amounted to P1.89 billion, up 15 percent year on year.
“The growth in collections reflects our successful efforts to promote the importance of active SSS membership among workers here in Southern Luzon,†De Quiros said.
Disbursements of benefits rose two percent to P3.84 billion. Nearly 79 percent of the disbursements, or about P3.01 billion, were paid for regular pensions of over 153,000 SSS pensioners based in the region.
The SSS has 2.1 million members in Southern Luzon, who are served by 17 SSS branches located in Palawan, San Pablo, Batangas, Biñan, Boac, Calamba, Calapan, Infanta, Lipa, Lucena, Romblon, San Jose, Sta. Cruz, Bacoor, Carmona, Rosario and Tagaytay.
About 1.49 million members in Southern Luzon are registered employees, including 3,787 domestic workers, while almost 564,000 are self-employed and voluntary members.
The state pension fund’s micro-savings program, AlkanSSSya, has attracted over 21,500 informal sector workers from a total of 284 workers’ associations nationwide.
The AlkanSSSya program was designed to make payment of SSS contributions convenient and affordable through the use of secure cabinet-like “piggy banks†with personal coin slots. This mechanism allows members to regularly save a portion of their earnings from livelihood projects for SSS contributions.
De Quiros said the agency has expanded the coverage of AlkanSSSya to enable more workers to benefit from the program which evolved from the original “TrikanSSSya†scheme conceptualized by SSS for tricycle operators and drivers.