Unemployment benefits hit P190M

The agency’s Calamity Loan Assistance Package or CLAP for the COVID-19 had over 1.03 million approved applications since its online filing was launched on 15 June 2020

State-run Social Security System (SSS) has thus far approved P190 million worth of unemployment benefits for workers displaced by the coronavirus disease pandemic.

In July alone this year, the SSS approved 14,186 applications.

Also, in the 12 months to July this year the SSS paid unemployment benefits totaling P544.37 million from 43,347 approved applications.

The numbers are a far cry from projected unemployment payouts totaling as much as P1.2 billion estimated earlier by Finance Secretary Carlos Dominguez III who chairs the SSS.

When the ongoing health crisis first manifested in great numbers, fiscal officials feared the potential displacement of as much as 60,000 workers who may be forced to claim unemployment benefits.

SSS president and CEO Aurora Ignacio said the payout was expected to help keep families afloat amid the economic fallout brought about by the health crisis.

The agency’s Calamity Loan Assistance Package or CLAP for the COVID-19 had over 1.03 million approved applications since its online filing was launched on 15 June 2020.

According to Ignacio, the average CLAP application totals P15,144 as the loan program runs for three months beginning June until 14 September this year.

The state-managed fund calls on members, pensioners and other beneficiaries to file their claims online to limit face-to-face transactions as a way to prevent the further spread of the virus.

The government imposed strict quarantine measures last March, forcing most businesses and other establishments to halt their operations and displace some of the employees in the process.