SSS mandatory provident fund generates P334 million in income

MANILA, Philippines — The Social Security System (SSS) said yesterday that the pension fund’s mandatory provident fund for its members called the Workers’ Investment and Saving Program (WISP) generated an income of P333.77 million with a corresponding return of 6.39 percent in the first year of its implementation.

SSS president and chief executive officer Michael Regino said that the return of investment for WISP outperforms key market indicators, such as the 10-year Treasury bond, which averaged 4.1 percent in 2021.

“Despite the pandemic, SSS investments continued to perform well and provided higher returns compared to other major investment benchmarks while adhering to principles of safety, good yield and liquidity. Members who contributed to WISP have already gained a substantial earning last year considering it is only the first year of the program’s implementation,” Regino said.

WISP is a provident fund scheme managed by SSS intended as another savings for private-sector workers and other individual members. It was implemented in January 2021 as part of the landmark provisions under Republic Act 11199 (the Social Security Act of 2018).

The program aims to help members to raise their savings for higher retirement benefits in the future.

“The provident fund is a safe, convenient, principal-protected, and tax-free individual retirement savings plan that will supplement a member’s savings from the regular Social Security program,” Regino said.

“All private-sector employees, self-employed individuals, OFW, and voluntary members who have no final claim in the regular SSS program, have contributions in the regular SSS program, and have a monthly salary credit (MSC) that exceeds P20,000 are automatically covered by the program,” Regino said.

He said that WISP contributions are paid together with the contributions in the regular SSS program. Earnings realized from WISP will be distributed proportionately based on the member’s contribution.

As of April 30, 2022, SSS has collected more than P21 billion in contributions from more than four million members under the program.