The social insurance benefits and claims to members as well as pensioners that the state-run Government Service Insurance System distributed in the first 11 months of 2017 grew 13 percent year-on-year to over P85 billion.
In a statement, the GSIS said disability, funeral, life insurance, pension, retirement and survivorship claims as well as benefits released from January to November rose from P75.1 billion in the same 11-month period of 2016.
“The growth is attributed to the increased monthly old-age pension of P7.5 billion covering 316,323 pensioners, survivorship benefit amounting to P338.2 million for 132,449 pensioners, as well as life insurance and retirement claims of P616.8 million and P980.2 million, respectively,” the GSIS said.
“The number of life insurance claims processed also rose 21.2 percent, to reach 82,936 in the first 11 months from 68,401; while the number of retirement claims processed grew 9.2 percent at 34,489 from 31,592 in the same period,” the GSIS added.
According to GSIS president and general manager Jesus Clint Aranas, “the higher payout in social insurance claims and benefits is due to the strict monitoring of turnaround time (TAT) in the processing of these claims and the attainment of 100-percent efficiency in the posting of payments for premiums.”
In 2017, the GSIS also “further reduced the TAT for the processing of retirement claims to 30 days, which is even more stringent than the 90 days prescribed under the law,” according to Aranas.
The GSIS said that in September last year, almost nine out of every 10 life insurance as well as retirement and separation transactions were processed within only 30 days.
“To fast-track the processing of retirement claims, the GSIS undertakes a pre-reconciliation of premium and loan records of members who have filed a request or application for retirement, 90 days before the actual date of their retirement. The GSIS also regularly sends, through the agency authorized officers, the list of possible retiring members (those who are turning 60 years old and above in a given year) for the submission of their updated service records to the GSIS,” it explained.
Also, the GSIS disbursed over P35 billion in various loans as of November.
“Due to the typhoons that hit the country, emergency loans amounting to P3.8 billion were granted to more than 176,845 active members. The pension fund also disbursed P61.8 million in pension emergency loans for 3,122 pensioners,” it said. /jpv