Retired SSS members to get 13th month pay

The Social Security System announced yesterday that its retired members will receive on Nov. 15 their 13th month pay, December pension and a 10 percent increase in their monthly pension that would be accrued up to five months prior to its announcement on Oct. 20.

The 10 percent increase was supposedly retroactive only to Sept. 1 and will be given beginning this month.

SSS president Corazon dela Paz announced the additional benefits for the SSS pensioners, who number over one million.

In a televised roundtable discussion, President Arroyo said the "early Christmas gift" was made possible by the agency’s improved collection and increased investments over the last two years.

"This is an early Christmas gift from the government and SSS," Mrs. Arroyo said. "This was done because of the reforms instituted by the agency that resulted in increased collection and contribution, especially from companies that would not pay before."

Mrs. Arroyo said she earlier broached the subject of increasing the amount of pensions accorded to SSS members two years ago, but De la Paz said at the time that such a move was impossible because of the agency’s financial situation, which she said was "not too rosy."

The SSS has managed to rise from the crisis that limited its actuarial or life fund to 2015. The SSS is now financially stable and has extended its actuarial funds up to 2031.

Earlier, SSS chairman Thelmo Cunanan said collections reached about P1.6 billion in recent months.

The last pension increase the SSS granted was in 2000, a 10-percent across-the-board pension hike. — Aurea Calica