SSS savings scheme hits P80 billion

MANILA, Philippines — The savings scheme of state-run pension fund Social Security System (SSS) has collected P80 billion from six million members who are looking for additional investment channels.

Under the Workers’ Investment and Savings Program (WISP) of SSS, total member savings collection reached P79.51 billion since the start of its implementation in 2021 until end-2023.

WISP is a mandatory provident fund scheme managed by SSS that serves as another saving platform for private sector workers and other individual paying members.

For the first year of implementation, SSS collected P15.48 billion. This grew by 31 percent to P20.4 billion in 2022, bringing the total WISP contributions to almost P36 billion.

A total of P43.63 billion was added to the program in 2023, briging the aggregate amount to nearly P80 billion.

Members contributing to the WISP reached 6.02 million last year, 23 percent higher than the 4.9 million in 2022.

SSS expanded the program to WISP Plus in December 2022 to serve all SSS members, regardless of their membership type, declared monthly earnings, and last posted monthly salary credit.

Data showed that WISP Plus contributions amounted to P391.63 million from around 30,536 members as of end-December.

Further, WISP and WISP Plus actual investment portfolios reached P76.34 billion and P1.41 billion, respectively.

The annualized return on investment of WISP was recorded at 5.33 percent, while WISP Plus was at 6.87 percent.

As one of the key provisions under the Social Security Act, WISP aims to encourage SSS members to save and invest so they can have a better retirement package aside from their regular SSS benefits.

Qualified for WISP are private sector employees, self-employed individuals, overseas Filipino workers, and voluntary members who have no final claim and have contributions in the regular SSS program.

They should also have a monthly salary credit of over P20,000.

WISP contributions are paid together with regular SSS contributions. In addition to those provided by the regular SSS program, members are entitled to disability and death benefits as well as a retirement fund.

Aside from serving as a savings scheme, WISP also functions as an investment vehicle for SSS members where the pension fund pools the contributions collected and invests them in the capital markets.

Earnings realized from the WISP will be distributed proportionately based on the members’ contributions.