Pension loan disbursements up 54% in March —SSS

State-run pension fund Social Security System (SSS) on Tuesday said the releases for the Pension Loan Program (PLP) of retiree pensioners jumped by more than 50 percent in March compared to the prior month.

In a statement, the SSS attributed the increase in PLP disbursements to "procedural enhancements approved by the Social Security Commission."

Approved loan amount disbursed to 4,081 retiree pensioners reached P150.34 million in March, up 53.8 percent from P97.748 million in February.

“We are glad that we were able to reach more pensioners thru the Pension Loan Program with the enhanced guidelines. The program will truly serve its purpose of providing for the short-term financial needs of our retiree pensioners," SSS president and CEO Aurora Ignacio said.

In early March, SSS relaxed its guidelines for more than 1.2 million retiree pensioners so that those who are receiving their monthly pension even for just a month would be already qualified to avail of the SSS pension loan.

Under the old rule, a retiree-pensioner must be receiving his monthly pension for at least six months to qualify for the pension loan.

Further, with the new guidelines for PLP application, other government-issued identification cards aside from the Social Security card (SS card) or Unified Multi-Purpose Identification (UMID) card may now be used as a form of identification.

The following are acceptable identification cards: Alien Certificate of Registration issued by Bureau of Immigration; driver’s license issued by Land Transportation Office; firearm registration, License to Own and Process Firearms, and Permit to Carry Firearms Outside of Residence from the Philippine National Police; National Bureau of Investigation (NBI) clearance; passport; postal identity card, Seafarer’s Identification and Record Book (Seaman’s Book); and voter’s ID card.

In the absence of a primary ID card/document, the applicant shall present and submit any two valid ID cards bearing a signature and a photo of the applicant.

As of end-March, SSS pension loan releases to more than 32,872 retiree pensioners reached P788.664 million.

SSS launched PLP in September last year in celebration of the 61st anniversary of the pension fund and was intended to be offered to retiree pensioners for a period of one year only.

"But now, PLP has become a permanent loan facility of SSS under Republic Act 11199 or the Social Security Act of 2019 which took effect last March 2019," the SSS said.

With only 10 percent interest per annum, PLP offers a lower interest rate compared with high-interest loan offerings of some financial institutions. —Ted Cordero/KG, GMA News