SSS disburses P3.37 B maternity benefits

State-run Social Security System has disbursed P3.37 billion in maternity benefits to 157,163 members in the first half of the year, a top official said.

In a statement, SSS president and chief executive officer Emmanuel Dooc said this was about 12 percent higher than the P3.01 billion worth of maternity benefits disbursed in the same period last year.

Of the total beneficiaries, Dooc said 68 percent or 107,268 were employee-members with total disbursements amounting to P2.85 billion.

Another 38,724 availees were voluntary members with total benefit releases reaching P411.36 million, followed by 7,279 self-employed and 3,892 overseas Filipino workers with benefits worth P41.36 million and P71.63 million, respectively.

“As the only state-run institution that provides maternity benefit to female workers from the private sector, we are glad that more members were able to receive cash benefits for the past six months. In fact, maternity benefit is now the third highest disbursement under the Social Security Program,” Dooc said.

To qualify for maternity benefits, a member should have paid at least three monthly contributions within the 12-month period immediately preceding the semester of pregnancy or miscarriage.

The applicant should immediately report her pregnancy through her employer or directly to SSS if she is a registered self-employed or voluntary member.

“We just announced last April that self-employed and voluntary members can conveniently send their maternity notifications using the TextSSS facility so that it would be easier for them to comply with our benefit application procedures. However, employed members are still required to notify the SSS through their employers,” Dooc added.

Aside from the Text-SSS facility, Dooc said maternity notifications can be submitted through My.SSS portal in the SSS website.

“SSS has introduced innovative ways on how to facilitate hassle-free transactions so that members can fully maximize their benefits and privileges. So I would like to encourage our female members to make use of the Text-SSS and My.SSS facility to submit their maternity notification,” Dooc said.

In the first quarter, net earnings of SSS declined 12.7 percent to P3.5 billion.