GSIS pensioners to receive benefits via eCard Plus

Over 60,000 Government Service Insurance System (GSIS) survivorship pensioners will start receiving their monthly benefits through eCard Plus on July 1.

GSIS general manager Winston Garcia said with the electronic crediting system, survivorship pensioners can enjoy the full value of their pensions and avoid rediscounting of their checks.

Through the eCard saving account with Union Bank, which is automatically created once they enroll to the eCard Plus, survivorship pensioners can have their monthly pension deposited every first working day of the month from July onwards.

“Survivorship pensioners can use their eCard as an ATM card and withdraw their pension from any Bancnet, Megalink or Expressnet ATMs in the county,” Garcia noted.

The eCard Plus will be mailed to the address given by the survivorship pensioner a few weeks after enrollment and the survivorship pensioner must go to any GSIS Wireless Automated Processing System (G-W@PS) kiosk to activate it.

The survivorship pensioner can begin using the eCard Plus at least five days after activation.

Aside from serving as an ATM card, the eCard Plus can also facilitate the annual renewal of active status (ARAS) of survivorship pensioners through the G-W@PS. The ARAS is a requirement set by the GSIS to all its pensioners—whether old-age or survivorship—to ensure the guaranteed receipt of their monthly pension.

As of May 10, 2008, 74.7 percent or 60,761 out of 81,315 survivorship pensioners have already enrolled for the eCard Plus.

At present, the monthly pension of survivorship pensioners are still being disbursed through checks.

The eCard Plus is the official ID card of GSIS survivorship pensioners which can also be used in point-of-sale terminals in selected M. Lhuillier branches to withdraw their pensions or in Visa-accredited merchant stores for the purchase of goods.

Those qualified to receive survivorship pension include qualified spouse and dependents of active members who died while in the service and have met the service and contribution requirements, and the qualified spouse of deceased old-age pensioners.

Pension benefits vary depending on the years of creditable service of the member.

If the member died while in the service, the survivorship benefit shall be the survivorship pension and cash payment equivalent to 18 times the basic monthly pension. For members who died while no longer active in the service and had previously served for 15 years or more in the service, the survivorship benefit shall be the survivorship pension only.

For those who died while in the service and had served less than 15 years of creditable service, the cash payment benefit of the survivor shall be an amount equivalent to 100 percent of the average monthly compensation for every year of creditable service of the member.

For those who died as an inactive member and was less than 60 years old at the time of death, the cash payment/benefit shall be an amount equivalent to 100 percent of the average monthly compensation for every year of creditable service, but not less than P12,000, provided that the deceased member had at least three years of creditable service.

Applications for survivorship benefits should be filed within four years from the death of the member or pensioner.

For the spouse, the monthly pension will be stopped upon the death of the spouse or if the spouse remarries.

The monthly pension for the child, on the other hand, will be stopped when the child reaches 18 years or during instances of marriage, employment or death.