Friday, May 23, 2008 Speak out: Poor SSS service By Liberty A. Pinili
AFTER three attempts to avail myself of a loan from the Social Security Service (SSS), I’ve started to sympathize with those who support privatization.
It is ironic that the SSS, in its “Statement of Vision,” aims to provide “world-class service.” “Social security service that is prompt, accurate and courteous shall be provided to ensure total member satisfaction,” so goes the declaration.
But my recent experience with SSS indicates otherwise. While I only have little firsthand knowledge of government processes—my experience being limited to the Land Transportation Office and to the Department of Environment and Natural Resources, which I covered as a news reporter for more than five years—my experience and the things I’ve heard about public offices have convinced me that SSS is among those that do not know the meaning of “prompt, accurate and world-class service.”
Allow me to summarize my experience in trying to avail of an SSS salary loan since April this year.
In early April, I checked the SSS online inquiry to verify my loan status. I learned that I still could not apply for a salary loan because I had a balance of more than P500. Upon further verification by one of our messengers, I learned that I had a balance of about P692.
To be able to qualify, I promptly paid the said balance. Having been informed that it would take about three or four weeks for the amount to be “posted,” I waited for three weeks before applying again.
Balance
After about three weeks, I checked the online inquiry system, which revealed that as of April 17, 2008, my total obligation is P1.52. The amount being below P500 indicates that I am already qualified to apply for a loan. Or so I thought.
I filed another application for loan on April 22, 2008. To my surprise—and annoyance—an SSS staff gave me a printout to say I have a balance of P1,176.67, which disqualifies me from applying for a loan. I was fuming.
How could it be that I still have a balance of almost a P1,000 after having paid P692 earlier? I have printouts of the SSS online inquiry webpage on April 17 that states that my loan balance is only P1.52. The website, as of April 17, did not report any other balances from any other loans I had availed of in the past.
It was obvious that the latest balance of P1,176 was only unearthed after I have filed, for the second time, an application for loan.
The SSS printout of the recently known balance refers to my emergency loan which was approved in 1999 yet. The SSS only realized that my emergency loan has not been fully paid nearly eight years after the said benefit was released. How prompt, indeed.
But I controlled my anger. After all, the mess up could have originated from our HR department, which had undergone
several changes since.
So I paid P650 (I only paid about half of the amount so that my balance would not go beyond the P500-limit to qualify for a loan) to the SSS on April 24, 2008 and waited. On Thursday, May 22, I filed my application for loan. This is my third attempt.
Not posted
You can imagine my anger after learning that the SSS could not process my application as they have yet to post the payment I made on April 24. The inefficiency of this agency does not cease to amaze me. As computer companies develop high-speed and ultra-powerful computers, SSS needs a month to input new information into its system.
Where is this “world-class service” that SSS is aiming for? Or does this phrase remain to be a vision, up to now?
While the wheels of the SSS system crawled and creaked, I availed myself of a loan from my coop to partially pay for some expenses. The coop, which is powered only by seven people, extended me a loan within a week after I filed an application.
I ought not to grumble anymore—although I definitely need that SSS loan with the enrolment period about to close—because I, at least, have a coop to run to and my needs are not exactly a matter of life and death. I, however, feel for those who only have SSS to run to.
