GSIS to increase retirement, disability pensions by January

OLD-AGE and disability pensioners of state-run Government Service Insurance System (GSIS) will have a pension increase starting January next year.

In a statement, the state-run pension fund for government workers said its board of trustees recently approved a pension increase, from the current average pension of P7,200 a month to P7,800 starting next year, or an 8-percent rise.

Winston Garcia, GSIS president and general manager, said pensioners eligible to receive the increase are old age or retirement pensioners including joint-life retirees and disability pensioners.

Garcia said those who are not entitled to the increase include basic survivorship and dependent pensioners as well as joint-life beneficiaries.

“Retirees who received in advance their guaranteed pensions in the form of lump sums and those who are still in their guaranteed period are not yet qualified to get the increase. They shall only be entitled to pension increases that may be granted upon the resumption of their regular monthly pensions,” he said.

Garcia said new retirees who availed of 18 times the basic monthly pension, as lump sum plus immediate monthly pension would also be entitled to the annual pension increase after five years as regular pensioners.

“GSIS is the only pension system which in the last decade has consistently given a yearly increase in pension,” Garcia said.

Since 2000, the GSIS has increased its monthly pension benefit by at least 84 percent.

“The continuously improving net income of the GSIS, even in the face of financial crises, has been the main reason why our pensioners consistently enjoy the highest average monthly pension in the country,” he said.

Last year, the GSIS increased its net earnings to P41.3 billion from P40.9 billion in the previous year.

This year, GSIS said it is on course to breaching its target of P50 billion.

Garcia said government retirees who availed of the pension program of the GSIS are still the highest earning retirees in the country.
–Chino S. Leyco, Manila Times