Most pension fund members not paying their retirement premiums — BSP

Nearly two-thirds of employees with retirement insurance are not paying their premiums, findings of a consumer finance survey by the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP) released on Wednesday showed.   BSP Gov. Amando Tetangco Jr. said the survey prompts them to “coordinate with the government pension systems” so self-employed and unemployed members of the Social Security System (SSS), the Government Service Insurance System (GSIS) and Provident Fund will be encouraged to pay regularly and in timely fashion.   The 9,402 respondent households informed the BSP—when the survey was done in late 2009 to early 2010—that 86.3 percent of the monthly premiums are lower than P601.   Those sending premium payments to their pension funds were only 36.4 percent while 63.6 percent said they stopped paying their premiums. Some 19.3 percent of the respondents also said that they had loans taken out against their retirement insurance.   Most of the amounts borrowed against the pension plans (89 percent) were less than P40,001.00. More than half (56.9 percent) were not paying down the loans drew.   Nearly all who were current on their pension loan payments said they were “on schedule” while 11.3 percent said they were behind schedule. About 4.3 percent said they were ahead of schedule on their payments. — ELR, GMA News