SSS wants OFW coverage

State-run Social Security System (SSS) is pushing for the mandatory coverage of overseas Filipino workers to help achieve its goal of expanding membership and at the same time provide protection for OFWs.

SSS president and chief executive officer Emmanuel Dooc over the weekend said the state fund is seeking the help of lawmakers for the implementation

of the mandatory coverage of migrant workers, one of the proposed charter amendments it is pushing in the legislative stage.

“Our objective is not just to strengthen enforcement of compliance for the coverage of employers and employees in the private sector, but also to encourage self-employed individuals and voluntary members like OFWs to register and be active in the system” Dooc said in a statement.

“We are pushing for our OFWs to be covered on a mandatory basis in order to secure their basic safety net in time of contingencies. Their SSS contributions (are) essentially a form of long-term savings for the future, especially when they decide to return home and retire,” he added.

Dooc stressed the mandatory OFW coverage would increase the number of members of the pension fund, which would make it a step closer to the SSS’ goal of universal coverage.

According to the latest data from the Philippine Statistics Authority (PSA), there are 2.4 million OFWs as of 2016. Of this number, only about 20 percent or 500,000 are paying members of the SSS, with contributions reaching P4.64 billion.

On the other hand, the SSS said it has disbursed P779 million in benefits – including initial and lump sum for retirement, death and disability, and short-benefits for sickness and maternity – to OFWs in 2016.

The SSS chief pointed out that Filipino migrant workers are often excluded from coverage under the social security schemes of their host countries, whose applicable laws and regulations provide only for the protection of their own nationals.