SSS denies suspension of salary loan grants

The Social Security System (SSS) denied yesterday reports that it had suspended salary loan grants to its 22 million members.

"I don’t know where these unverified reports came from, but it really isn’t true that we have suspended salary loan grants," said Ma. Luz Generoso, assistant vice president for loans program.

Generoso said the salary loan is the ordinary employee’s first resort during financial difficulties. "It’s their right and we cannot deny them that," she said.

However, the pension fund has tightened its salary loan guidelines, Generoso said, because it had already exceeded the limits on salary loans imposed by its own charter.

Under the SSS Law, salary loan grants should not exceed 10 percent of the investment reserve fund at all times to protect the SSS financial standing.

Because of the new guidelines, the SSS would require the member’s employer to stand as a co-maker or guarantor of the loan to ensure payment of the loan.

Further, the employer of the member should be up-to-date in remitting monthly contributions and loan payments.

Generoso said the fund stands at around P160 billion, while loan requests have already reached the P25-billion mark. The SSS kept granting loans despite the "loan overexposure."

"We’re still processing loans, only that where in the past we didn’t require co-makers. Now we do," Generoso said. "This time, if they don’t pay, we run after their co-makers or their employers. Our records show that some have even reneged on their obligations for a decade now."

News of the loan suspension prompted Senate Minority Leader Aquilino Pimentel Jr. to call on the SSS to justify its sudden suspension of salary loan grants to its members.

He said the suspension is unfair to members who have been paying the premium contributions and who have had no record of delinquency in paying past SSS loans.

The militant labor group Kilusang Mayo Uno (KMU) criticized the new SSS loan regulations, saying it would make it difficult for SSS members to avail of loans.

"Instead of improving ways on how to make the pension fund more accessible to its 22 million members, the SSS is making the entire process more painstaking for workers with the revised guidelines," KMU spokesperson Sammy Malunes said.

The militant labor group Kilusang Mayo Uno (KMU) criticized the new SSS loan regulations, saying it would make it difficult for SSS members to avail of loans.

"Instead of improving ways on how to make the pension fund more accessible to its 22 million members, the SSS is making the entire process more painstaking for workers with the revised guidelines," KMU spokesperson Sammy Malunes said. — With reports from Aurea Calica, Jose Rodel Clapano, Mayen Jaymalin