2nd round of pension hike seen reducing SSS fund life to 2026

MANILA, Philippines — The Social Security System said on Wednesday its fund life is projected to last only until 2026 should additional benefit to pensioners be given next year without any financing mechanism.

That was amid strong calls from retired SSS members to release the second tranche of the pension hike—which will be another P1,000 bump—next year as promised by President Rodrigo Duterte.

In a statement, SSS President and CEO Emmanuel Dooc explained his agency can only implement the additional payout if there’s an increase in contribution rate or an adjustment in the minimum and maximum monthly salary credits in SSS.

Dooc then said the state-run pension fund is now seeking the issuance of an executive order and the enactment of the proposed amendment of Republic Act 8282, or Social Security Law of 1997.

“The [Social Security Charter] does not have the power to adjust the contribution rate or amount of monthly pension, only the President of the Republic and Congress have the power to approve a pension increase,” Dooc said.

Duterte in 2017 announced the approval of the P2,000 monthly pension hike. He granted the first P1,000 on the same year while the remaining amount is set to be released in 2019.

But Dooc had reportedly said he wanted to delay the second round of pension hike and have it released in 2020, adding that he was targeting to raise the contribution rate shared by employers and employee to 11 percent to generate P17 billion to P35 billion in three months.

“This is important to support the viability of the pension fund and to assure our current members that the SSS will still be there in their times of contingencies to appease our current members,” the SSS president said.

After releasing the first tranche of the additional benefit in 2017, Dooc said the SSS' fund life dropped from 2042 to 2032 last year.

He said the amount needed to bankroll the second tranche of the pension increase would be slightly higher as the number of pensioners increases every year by an average of 100,000.

As of 2017, SSS has more than 960,000 registered employers and some combined 8.63 million members.