The Social Security System (SSS) is eyeing to implement a loan condonation program as it takes into consideration the economic impact of the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic crisis.
Aurora Ignacio, SSS president and chief executive officer, said in a virtual briefing yesterday she is hoping that the plan for a loan condonation will be firmed up this year.
“For the loan condonation program, we are now studying one, for one of the loan products, and as soon as we have the guidelines crafted and approved, we will probably announce the program, hopefully within the year or within the coming months,” Ignacio said.
In 2019, the pension fund implemented a Contribution Penalty Condonation Program, which was offered to SSS delinquent employers following the effectivity of Republic Act 11199 or Social Security Act of 2018 on March 6, 2019.
Nearly 500,000 employees of more than 55,000 employers benefited from the implementation of the program.
SSS earlier reported the number of paying members dropped by 13.6 percent as of May, to around 12.3 million versus the 14.2 million count in the same period of last year.
Ignacio attributed the decline in paying members to the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on the economy that pushed some establishments to close their businesses and let go of their employees.
Even last year, Ignacio said the number of paying members was reduced, from around 17.6 million in 2019 to 16.1 million in 2020.
“But we are already seeing paying members trying to come back. We have grown the membership… to 40 million, and we hope to also see an improvement in the paying members,” Ignacio said.
“We are hoping that what we’re seeing now will remain until the end of the year. Unless we see a lot more of businesses closing within the year, we will see the same trend. But they’re slowly coming back and we’re picking up,” she added.
Meanwhile, SSS launched an improved version of its mobile application to allow its users to access information about their membership and contributions as well as for members to apply for salary loans and submit maternity notification via the app.
“For the mobile app, the SSS introduced enhanced features to allow for easy navigation and effortless information presentation for its users,” Ignacio said.
She said the SSS recorded nearly 60 million SSS mobile app transactions in 2020, five times more than almost 12 million transactions reported in the preceding year, as more Filipinos opted to transact online amid mobility restrictions due to COVID-19 related quarantine measures.
Application downloads in 2020 reached about 7.38 million, a 221 percent increase from the nearly 2.3 million downloads recorded in 2019.
“The total cumulative number of downloads of the SSS mobile app as of May 31 has already reached 15,359,070,” Ignacio said. – Angela Celis
