SSS pension loans hit P1-B mark

By Rea Cu, Business Mirror, Jun 17, 2019

RELEASES under the Social Security System’s Pension Loan Program (PLP) have hit the P1-billion mark, with around 42,000 people availing since its implementation in September 2018, the SSS reported on Sunday.

In a statement issued on Sunday, the state-run pension fund reported that as of May 27 this year, releases under its PLP have amounted to P1.006 billion with 41,926 pensioner-borrowers availing of the program.

Based on SSS data, the agency’s Bacolod branch has the most number of approved loan applications at 2,696 and the highest amount of disbursed pension loans at P56.76 million.

This was followed by the Diliman branch with 2,177 approved loan applications for a total P56.09 million in pension loans; Cebu branch with 1,547 applicants for P38.42 million; and Victorias branch in Bacolod City with 1,733 applicants for P36.48 million.

Of the total number of approved loan applications, 92.16 percent of the pensioners preferred to pay their loan for 12 months followed by 6.25 percent who chose to pay within six months; the rest, or 1.59 percent opted to pay within a three-month period.

SSS President and CEO Aurora C. Ignacio said while the program has met its objective to provide immediate financial assistance to pensioners for their short-term and emergency needs, she urged pensioners to be vigilant and avoid transacting with “fixers” for their SSS transactions, especially for the PLP.

“We are pleased to note that our pensioners are now relying on SSS for their immediate financial needs instead of going to loan sharks. But sad to say, there are people who take advantage of our pensioners during their times of need. This has to stop. And this will only stop if our pensioners will no longer entertain any deal with these individuals who exploit them,” Ignacio said.

It was pointed out that the SSS received an incident report from its Bacolod branch that 15 pensioners fell victim to unscrupulous fixers whose modus operandi was to advance portions of their approved SSS pension loan, then run away with the pensioners’ cash cards.

The pensioners filed a case against the suspects with the National Bureau of Investigation (NBI) on April 24, 2019.

“We urge our retiree pensioners to be vigilant. Do not transact with non-SSS employees. Those who want to avail themselves of the pension loan must personally apply in our branch offices nationwide,” she added.

In March, SSS relaxed its guidelines for more than 1.2 million qualified retiree pensioners so that those receiving their monthly pension even for just a month and are already posted in the system may qualify for the PLP.

Previously, a retiree pensioner must be receiving a monthly pension for at least six months to qualify for the pension loan.

Furthermore, the new guidelines for PLP application also allowed the presentation of other government-issued identifications cards aside from the Social Security Card or Unified Multi-Purpose Identification (Umid) card as a form of identification.

Last month, the SSS reported that pension loan releases under the PLP reached P788.664 million to more than 32,872 retiree pensioners as of end-March this year.

The SSS launched its PLP in September 2018 in celebration of its 61st anniversary. It was intended to be offered to retiree pensioners for a period of only one year, but became a permanent loan facility of SSS under Republic Act (RA) 11199 or the Social Security Act of 2019, which took effect in March this year. The PLP only has a 10-percent interest per annum, which is a lower interest rate compared to high-interest loan offerings of some financial institutions.