Govt urged to fund P1,000 hike in SSS monthly pension

House Committee on Senior Citizens chairperson Rodolfo Ordanes of Senior Citizens party-list has called on the Department of Budget and Management (DBM) to grant an additional P1,000 to the monthly Social Security System (SSS) pension.

In a statement, Ordanes said that the P1,000 hike in SSS retirees’ monthly pension that was implemented when the Social Security Act of 2018 was passed is already not sufficient nowadays.

“I ask the Department of Finance and DBM  to give the SSS a direct subsidy for the P1,000 increase in the monthly pension of SSS pensioners. Over 3.6 million SSS pensioners are in dire need of the second P1,000 increase in their pension,” Ordanes said.

“We remind and push for the P1,000 pension hike because the purchasing power of the peso has fallen since 2019, and basic needs like food and medicines are much more expensive now,” he added.

The subsidy, he said, would cost P43.2 billion annually.

“This subsidy would be a small fraction of national budgets that exceed P6 trillion annually,” Ordanes said. — BM, GMA Integrated News