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Saturday, February 15, 2003
SSS gave out P817M loans in Central Visayas in 2002
By Cherry T. Lim
THE Social Security System released a total of P817 million in loans in the Central Visayas region last year.
Helen Solito, SSS cluster head for Central Visayas, told Sun.Star that this translated to an average of P68 million a month.
The SSS is using the old political subdivision of Central Visayas, which includes Bohol, Samar, Leyte and Cebu, but “excludes Dumaguete and Siquijor.”
Ninety percent of the loans were released in Cebu province.
The loans include salary loans, housing loans for repair and improvement, and housing loans for overseas Filipino workers.
On the other hand, benefits released in the region last year amounted to P838 million, “excluding pensions.”
Solito said the benefits included sickness, maternity and disability benefits, as well as the first monthly pension payments of new pensioners.
Initial pension payments are released by the Cebu office, but the subsequent payments are released by the Manila office and credited directly to the accounts of the pensioners, so the Cebu office does not have local figures for these subsequent payments.
As for the contributions made by members, in Cebu province alone, the fund collected P1.807 billion or P150 million a month last year.
The figure is over P2 billion for the entire Central Visayas, Solito said.
Last Friday, the pension fund announced that it would raise the monthly contribution rate by one percentage point to 9.4 percent effective March 1 from the present 8.4 percent.
The increase will be shouldered solely by the employers.
This will “correct the imbalance between contributions and benefit payments,” Solito said.
Benefits have been exceeding contributions since 1993, placing the fund at risk of being depleted.
(February 15, 2003 issue)
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