SSS targets 20% profit hike to P100 billion

MANILA, Philippines — State-run pension fund Social Security System (SSS) is expecting at least a 20-percent hike in its bottomline to breach the P100-billion mark this year on increased investment returns and enhanced collection efforts.

In a briefing yesterday, SSS president and CEO Rolando Macasaet said the pension fund for the private sector targets another record year with at least P100 billion in net income.

This will be a conservative 20-percent jump from the 2023 net income of P83.13 billion, its highest income to date.

“I expect it to be (a little) over P100 billion,” Macasaet said.

“We have receivables of over P60 billion that go to our income. Second our massive collection drive and the move to increase our members,” he said.

Right now, there are roughly 42 million SSS members, but only half of that at 20 million are actively contributing to the fund.

As such, the SSS chief wants to double the number of additional Filipinos remitting to the fund.

On average, there are one million Filipinos being added to the SSS per year.

“We want to increase the number of SSS members from one million to at least two million per year to exceed the population growth of this country,” Macasaet said.

“Otherwise, over time, the number of Filipinos contributing will be less, but there will be more needing their pension,” he said.

Apart from more members, SSS is also banking on better investment returns from the stock market.

“The stock market today is almost at 7,000. We are expecting more than that by yearend so you can imagine the amount of income we can make,” Macasaet said.

As part of its mandate to grow the fund and generate returns, SSS invests a portion of its reserve fund in private equities and securities. SSS reserve fund currently stands at P750 billion.

Moreover, SSS is ramping up its campaign against contribution evaders or those who have been remiss in settling their contribution delinquencies.

Last year, uncollected contributions went down by almost 40 percent to P56 billion from P92 billion in 2022.  These include unremitted premium contributions, penalties and damages.

Aside from improved collection from delinquent employers, Macasaet said SSS also updated its records since it discovered that many of the reported contribution collectibles were from establishments that no longer operated, resulting in overstated statements of accounts being issued by SSS.