Self-employed members of the Social Security System (SSS), including farmers and fisherfolk as well as those in the informal sector who all don’t receive a regular paycheck, will soon be able to pay their contribution at more flexible terms, according to the SSS.
In this light, the state-run pension fund called on all these earners to register with the SSS and be able to pay their contributions for any of the last 12 months in the current month.
Latest data from the Philippine Statistics Authority show there are 9.4 million self-employed who are skilled agricultural, forestry and fishery workers in the country. Of these, only about 636,000 are registered with SSS.
“By offering them a flexible way of paying their SSS premiums, we provide them greater opportunity to pay social security contributions for all months of a year for full protection through the various benefit and loan programs of SSS,” Michael Regino, president and chief executive of the SSS, said in a statement.
Regino said that if, for example, a farmer paid his SSS contributions in October 2022, under the new program they could still pay their monthly contributions from October 2021 to September 2022.
In contrast, the prevailing payment deadline of remittances allowed such members to pay contributions for the preceding three months—if they paid in October, they may also pay for dues covering July to September.
“We saw that the current payment schedule for self-employed members, which also include farmers and fisherfolk, is not suitable for them,” Regino said.
He said the upcoming new contribution payment scheme is aligned with the harvesting seasons of the farmers and fisherfolk.