SSS net revenue down 19.7% at end-July
Payments to pensioners whose contributions between 1985 and 1989 were not reflected earlier in the Social Security System’s (SSS) records due to a system glitch dragged the state-run pension fund’s net revenues by a fifth during the first seven months of the current year.
The latest SSS data showed end-July net revenues dropped 19.7 percent to P20.1 billion from over P25 billion a year ago.
“The lower seven-month net revenue is due to pension adjustment as a result of posting 1985-1989 contributions,” the SSS said in a report.
SSS president and chief executive Emilio S. de Quiros Jr. revealed the technical glitch back in July.
“There were some transactions from 1985 to 1989 that were not posted to the individual accounts of the members, that when they retired, those things were not considered for some pensioners,” De Quiros said.
“It took us one year to encode [those unrecorded contributions]. In June, we already recomputed all the pensions of all the pensioners, and we came up with the numbers and we adjusted the pensions,” he added.
The SSS chief had said the immediate adjustment in pensions cost the fund about P7 billion last June. This was on top of P80 million in additional monthly expenses moving forward, he added.
As such, De Quiros had said SSS expected profit this year to decrease from P40.7 billion last year.
During the January to July period, expenditures jumped to P82.1 billion from P69.9 billion a year ago.
As a result of the disbursements for the previously unpaid pensions, benefits distributed to members ballooned to almost P77 billion at end-July from P65.2 billion in the same period last year.
In the first seven months, gross revenues actually increased to P102.2 billion from more than P95 billion in 2015.
Operating expenses, however, grew to P5.1 billion from P4.7 billion a year ago.
Contributions also rose to P83.3 billion from P76.8 billion a year ago, while investment and other income were slightly up to P18.9 billion from P18.2 billion at end-July last year.
