GSIS okays new guidelines on survivorship pensions

MANILA, Philippines - The Government Service Insurance System (GSIS), has approved new guidelines on survivorship pension.

Under the new guidelines, the maximum amount of basic survivorship pension should not exceed 50 percent of the salary of an undersecretary level under the Salary Standardization Law or slightly over P30,000.

GSIS president and general manager Robert Vergara said the agency based the ceiling on the rank of undersecretary because it is the highest career position in government.

For those whose pensions were suspended under the policy implemented by the previous administration, Vergara said the agency would restore the accrued amounts equivalent to the period of suspension.

Furthermore, GSIS will also request surviving spouses whose applications were previously denied to submit their applications for processing and computation retroactively.

In January, the new board of GSIS under the Aquino administration, resolved to allow surviving spouses of members and pensioners to receive their monthly pension benefits even if they are gainfully employed and receiving other sources of income.

Previously, surviving spouses were disqualified from getting the usual half of the GSIS pensioners’ monthly benefit if the spouse earns more than the minimum wage rate of National Government employees or is getting pension from other institutions.

More than 300,000 old age and survivorship pensioners stand to benefit from the new policy.

Vergara assured that GSIS will remain focused in its social mission and will put the highest premium on the needs of its over 1.7 million members and pensioners.

Last year, GSIS then headed by Winston Garcia, suspended the monthly benefits of the spouses of its deceased pensioners found to be gainfully employed or have other sources of income.

Under Garcia’s policy, the legitimate surviving spouse must be dependent upon the member or pensioner for support or the secondary beneficiary should not be gainfully employed or engaged in any gainful activity immediately before the death of the member to get the benefits from GSIS.

Survivors of deceased pensioners complained about this and appealed to the new administration to reverse the measure.