SSS Releases 2nd Tranche of P1,000 Additional Benefit on March 10

The state-run Social Security System (SSS) on Thursday said about P2.07 billion worth of pension will be released to its qualified members on March 10 as the February differential of the recently approved P1,000 additional benefit. SSS President and Chief Executive Officer Emmanuel F. Dooc said more than two million pensioners will benefit from the second tranche of the P1,000 additional benefit release on Friday, March 10.

“We are happy to inform our regular pensioners that the P1,000 additional benefit differential for February 2017 is now deposited in the respective bank accounts of our pensioners. This is the second happy Friday for SSS pensioners,” Dooc said.

“From the 2.04 million pensioners for the month of January, almost 30,000 were added in our list of the beneficiaries for February. We are expecting that the number of pensioners who will enjoy the P1,000 additional benefit will continue to increase in the coming months,” Dooc added.

The pension fund last Friday released about P2.04 billion to its pensioners for the January 2017 differential. Likewise, the P1,000 additional benefit for the month of March will be released next Friday (Mar 17). The SSS earlier enumerated the list of pensioners under special cases who will receive their P1,000 benefit increase on different dates, particularly on March 31, May 12 and 26.

Among the pensioners who will receive the P1,000 additional benefit on March 31 are those under the Special Pension System which includes death claim with more than 1 payee and one of them is overpaid; payees with withheld share; Special Pension System, pension with payees under different guardians; and those covered by a Bilateral Social Security Agreement between the Philippines and other countries and the Portability Law.

Likewise, pensioners on suspended status due to non-compliance with the Annual Confirmation of Pensioners but are up for resumption from January to March are scheduled to receive the additional benefit on March 31, provided they have already reported to SSS for the resumption of their monthly pension.

Meanwhile, retiree-pensioners who availed of the advance 18 months retirement pension from August 2015 onwards will receive the P1,000 additional benefit on May 12 to cover the remaining months starting January 2017.

Pensioners with settled initial disability, death and retirement (DDR) claims from November 2016 to April 2017 as well as those who filed for adjustment in their pension will be able to withdraw their P1,000 additional benefit from their bank accounts on May 12.

Other types of pensioners scheduled to receive the additional benefit on May 12 are partial disability pensioners with less than 12 months duration paid in lump sum. The additional P1,000 per month benefit will cover the number of months they receive the disability pension starting January 2017.

For pensioners who availed of the three-month advance pension due to typhoon Lawin and Nina last year, they will be paid their pension differential on May 26. Only about 13,000 pensioners with unpaid loans will not be able to receive the P1,000 additional benefit to offset any outstanding obligation.

“Starting April, all regular pensioners, will receive the updated amount of their pension. This means that their regular monthly pension will automatically increase by P1,000,” said Dooc. “However for our pensioners who fall under the special cases, please wait for further announcements,” he added.

For questions and clarifications, pensioners may call the SSS hotline at numbers 920-6446 to 55 or emailmember_relations@sss.gov.ph.