2.1M workers get P 16.4B in wage subsidy

As of May 12, over 2.1 million workers whose employers were unable to pay them on time during the COVID-19 lockdown received a total of P16.4 billion in wage subsidy from the government, the Department of Finance (DOF) said.

In all, nearly 160,000 small businesses badly hit by the pandemic applied for the P51-billion small business wage subsidy (SBWS) program, Social Security System (SSS) president and chief executive Aurora C. Ignacio was quoted by the DOF as saying.

“The SSS is currently processing them, but so far, the applications for around 2.94 million employees have been approved according to program criteria. This represents around 86 percent of the program’s target of 3.4 million small business employees,” Ignacio said.

As for the firms already deemed qualified, their beneficiary-workers got between P5,000 and P8,000 through their bank or PayMaya accounts, or cash remittance via the state-run lender Development Bank of the Philippines and its partner, MLhuillier Financial Services.

The first tranche of the two months’ worth of subsidies were given away from May 1 to 15, although actual distribution started as early as April 30.

The next round of subsidy will be paid out between May 16 and 30.

Finance Secretary Carlos G. Dominguez III had said that the SBWS program was the form of financial assistance extended to the “middle class” amid the COVID-19 crisis, as the cash subsidy under the Bayanihan to Heal as One Act mostly benefited vulnerable sectors such as poor households and displaced workers.

Jointly implemented by the DOF, the SSS, and the Bureau of Internal Revenue, the SBWS program’s application period had been extended until May 8 instead of the original April 30 deadline as the SSS website—where employers needed to submit their applications—had hit a snag, having been down for one week after the program was launched on April 16.

As such, the SSS was unable to launch its planned calamity loan assistance program last April 24, as it instead focused on accepting SBWS applications and cannot accommodate other online transactions such as loan processing through its website.INQ