SSS savings fund reach P36 billion

MANILA, Philippines — The savings scheme of state-run pension fund Social Security System (SSS) has collected P36 billion from its nearly five million members looking for additional investment channels.

Under the Workers’ Investment and Savings Program (WISP) of SSS, total member savings collection has reached P35.84 billion since the start of its implementation in 2021.

WISP is a mandatory provident fund scheme managed by SSS that serves as another saving platform for private sector workers and other individual paying members.

For the first year of implementation, SSS collected P15.48 billion. This grew by 31 percent to P20.4 billion in 2022, bringing the total WISP contributions to almost P36 billion.

Members contributing to the WISP also grew to 4.9 million members last year, 33 percent higher than the 3.7 million when the program started in 2021.

As one of the key provisions under the Social Security Act, WISP aims to encourage SSS members to save and invest so they can have a better retirement package aside from their regular SSS benefits.

SSS president and CEO Rolando Macasaet said the program had a good start with a 6.39 percent return on investment in 2021 and an estimated 3.4 percent ROI in 2022.

“It outperformed the balance fund market benchmarks, which indicates that members’ savings invested in WISP will generate decent earnings, which will be added to their total contributions,” Macasaet said.

Under the program, each contributing member will have an account wherein SSS will place their contributions and investment earnings.

Qualified for WISP are private sector employees, self-employed individuals, overseas Filipino workers, and voluntary members who have no final claim and have contributions in the regular SSS program.

They should also have a monthly salary credit of over P20,000.

Aside from serving as a savings scheme, WISP also functions as an investment vehicle for SSS members where the pension fund pools the contributions collected and invests them in the capital markets.

Earnings realized from the WISP will be distributed proportionately based on the members’ contributions.

Last December, SSS expanded the program to WISP Plus, which would cater to all SSS members, regardless of their membership type, declared monthly earnings, and last posted monthly salary credit.