A PHILIPPINE senator on Wednesday called on the Social Security System (SSS) to double its efforts to collect the more than P90-billion debt from firms before it raises contribution rates.
“We also need to look at their shortcomings and what management is not doing, like collecting debts,” Senator Sherwin T. Gatchalian told a news briefing.
“The idea is that when you contribute to a pension, the money is invested, and the investment returns pay for the benefits, making it self-sustaining.”
The senator said he plans on filing a resolution that seeks to look into the agency’s management practices and debt collection efforts.
The SSS on Tuesday said it does not see the need for further increases in its contribution rate as the last tranche of hikes would double the fund life to 28 years.
Robert Joseph M. de Claro, SSS president and chief executive officer (CEO), said the SSS fund is projected to last until 2053 with the scheduled 1% increase in the contribution rate to 15%, which takes effect this month.
The SSS also raised the monthly salary credits to P5,000 from P4,000, and the maximum credits to P35,000 from the previous P30,000.
Under Republic Act (RA) No. 11199 or the Social Security Act of 2018, the SSS implemented incremental contribution rate hikes of one percentage point every two years starting in 2019 from the original contribution rate of 11%.
Of the 15% contribution rate, employers will shoulder 10% of the contribution, while employees will pay the rest.
“I don’t want to jump the gun, but definitely, the P93 billion in debt is a sign that there is a management problem, and the P93 billion must be collected,” Mr. Gatchalian said in mixed English and Filipino.
Meanwhile, a resolution seeking to defer the SSS contribution rate hike was filed at the House of Representatives on Wednesday, with lawmakers calling for the pension fund to make its collections “more efficient.”
In a statement, Baguio Rep. Mark O. Go said he filed House Resolution No. 2157 to ease the economic burden faced by Filipinos by suspending the scheduled SSS rate hike this year.
“There is a wide clamor from all sectors to defer the implementation of the scheduled increase in the rate of contribution for SSS for year 2025 in consideration of the current economic situation that affects our low income earners,” the resolution stated.
In a separate statement, Rizal Rep. Juan Fidel Felipe F. Nograles urged President Ferdinand R. Marcos, Jr. to suspend the pension fund’s rate hike and mandate SSS to make its collections efficient first.
“The SSS should address systemic bottlenecks and gaps first to ensure that our collection efforts are maximized,” he said. — John Victor D. Ordoñez with Kenneth Christiane L. Basilio
