SSS pension loan disbursements up in March

Pension loan disbursements of the Social Security System (SSS) rose by over half month-on-month in March after the state-run pension fund eased documentary requirements that month.

In a statement Tuesday, president and chief executive Aurora C. Ignacio said the SSS approved P150.3 million in pension loans in March, up 53.8 percent from the P97.7 million in February.

“We are glad that we were able to reach more pensioners through the pension loan program with the enhanced guidelines. The program will truly serve its purpose of providing for the short-term financial needs of our retiree-pensioners,” Ignacio said.

To recall, the SSS in March allowed new retirees who received only one month of pension to apply for the loan; previously, only those receiving pension for at least six months were qualified.

Also, the SSS allowed more government-issued IDs as proof of identification.

When it was launched last year, the pension loan program required the submission of the Social Security Card or Unified Multi-Purpose Identification (UMID) cards as identification documents.

Now, the following IDs and documents can also be submitted when applying for the loan: Bureau of Immigration (BI)-issued Alien Certificate of Registration; Land Transportation Office (LTO)-issued Driver’s License; National Bureau of Investigation (NBI) Clearance, Passport; Philippine National Police (PNP)-issued Firearm Registration, License to Own and Process Firearms, and Permit to Carry Firearms Outside of Residence; Postal Identity Card, Seafarer’s Identification and Record Book (Seaman’s Book); as well as Voter’s ID.

Launched in September last year, the pension loan was the first of its kind for retirees aged 55-80, which the SSS had said was aimed at “putting an end to growing incidence of pensioners falling victims to loan sharks” that slap high interest rates.

Under Republic Act (RA) 11199 or the Social Security Act of 2019 that took effect in March, the pension loan program became a permanent loan facility of the SSS.

As of end-March, the SSS already released P788.7 million worth of pension loans—slapped with an interest rate of only 10 percent per year—to 32,872 pensioners.

To date, the SSS has over 1.2 million retiree-pensioners.