GSIS assures pension benefits for members

MANILA – The Government Service Insurance System (GSIS) is assuring its members that it has enough funds to meet financial obligations to present and forthcoming pensioners.

As of September, the total assets of GSIS surpassed P800 billion while its revenue reached P120 billion, according to GSIS president and general manager Robert Vergara.

“The life of the fund is a healthy 34 years. This means that our members are assured that when they retire, GSIS will be there to pay their pension throughout the duration of their retired life,” Vergara said.

He also promised that the focus of state-owned firm will always be the interest of its members and pensioners.

“We will continue to regain our members’ trust and confidence, the only way we know how–one policy at a time, one member and pensioner at a time and one day at a time,” he said.

Vergara said GSIS has seen improvements in its efficiency in posting and collecting members’ premiums as well as loan payments, which currently stands at 100 percent and 91 percent, respectively.

This has resulted to a drop in the number of suspended agencies to over 100 from the 315 in 2010.

Vergara noted, however, that benefits of employees working in suspended agencies are still maintained following the lifting of the GSIS policy that automatically suspends the employee’s benefits once the agency failed to remit monthly premium or loan payment.

“We believe that it’s wrong for employees to suffer the consequence of their agencies’ failure to pay the premiums and loan amortizations of their employees, when these are mandatorily deducted from their salaries,” he said.

GSIS also restored benefits for the survivors of deceased members who are receiving income or pension from other government-owned financial institutions.

“This benefit is an earned right and should not be taken away. Surviving pensioners whose pensions were previously suspended or denied, had their accrued pensions restored and computed retroactively,” said Vergara.

GSIS has cancelled its requirement for old-age and disability pensioners to personally appear in GSIS offices to renew their active status, except for pensioners based in the Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao (ARMM) and abroad.

A partnership with the National Statistics Office has been forged to determine the status of pensioners to provide convenience for the more than 300,000 old-age GSIS pensioners.

The minimum basic pension of more than 57,000 old-age and disability pensioners has also been increased to P5,000 since January last year. –ABS-CBNnews.com