GSIS says it remains strong and liquid

MANILA, Philippines - The Government Service Insurance System (GSIS) assured its members that it remains sufficiently strong and liquid to cover future payment obligations.

In a dialogue with Lucena-based members, GSIS president Robert G. Vergara said the pension fund remains financially solid with total assets exceeding P800 billion as of the end of September this year.

Vergara said revenues of the agency which include members’ contributions and earnings from investments, stood at P120 billion as of the same period.

“More importantly, 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.

Apart from this, the GSIS chief noted that the agency has become more efficient in posting and collecting members’ premiums and loan payments, resulting to a drop in the number of suspended agencies to over 100 from  315 in 2010.

Suspended agencies can now choose from any of three options to  restore the loan privileges of their employees – pay their premium delinquencies in full; or restructure their arrears and commit to settling these through a Memorandum of Agreement (MOA) with GSIS; or upon payment of at least 90 percent of any three consecutive months’ premium obligations beginning July 2013, sign an undertaking to enter into a MOA with GSIS for the settlement of its premium deficiencies.

As part of efforts to regain members’ trust and confidence, the state pension fund implemented key landmark policies which include the restoration of the survivorship benefit for the survivors of deceased members as well as the cancellation of the requirement for old-age and disability pensioners.

In addition to this, the GSIS increased the minimum basic pension of more than 57,000  old-age and disability pensioners to P5,000 in January 2013.

Vergara said the restored benefit is applied retroactively to 2009.

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