SSS: Self-employed below age 65 must also file retirement claims online

The SSS main office in Quezon City. (File photo from the Philippine Daily Inquirer)

MANILA, Philippines—The Social Security System (SSS) has included self-employed members below but nearing the age 65 among those required to file retirement claims online.

“The coverage of the mandatory online filing of retirement benefit claims through the My.SSS portal will be extended to self-employed members who are 60-64 years old starting July 1, 2022,” SSS president and chief executive Michael Regino said in a statement on Friday (June 24).

“The retirement benefit is a cash benefit granted to a member who can no longer work due to old age and has reached the prescribed retirement age. It can be in the form of a monthly pension for those who have paid at least 120 monthly contributions prior to the semester of retirement or a lump sum for those who have paid less than 120 contributions,” Regino noted.

For two years now, employee-members, voluntary members, land-based overseas Filipino worker (OFW)-members, as well as self-employed members aged 65 and above during the time of their retirement had been mandated to file retirement claims online.

“As early as 2015, we have made this online facility available to our members who have reached their technical retirement age of 65 years old. With the onset of the pandemic, we have continuously enhanced this online facility to provide our members with a simpler and more convenient mode of application without physically going to our branches,” Regino said.

“All they need to do is to access their My.SSS account, click ‘apply for retirement benefit’ under the ‘benefits’ section of the ‘e-services’ tab, fill out the required information, and submit the required supporting documents,” Regino added.

But Regino said in some special cases, retirement claims must be filed manually at SSS branches or foreign representative offices of the state-run pension fund for private sector workers.

These special cases included:

• Incapacitated members
• Those under guardianship
• Members confined in penitentiary and correctional institutions and rehabilitation centers
• Those with outstanding loan balances in their stock investment loans, privatization loans, educational loans, or vocational technology loans
• Members with dependent child or children under guardianship
• Those covered by the portability law or bilateral social security agreements
• Members with adjustments or were for re-adjudication of claims
• Those with unclaimed benefits of deceased members

TSB

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