Careful what you wish for , you might just get it. !!!!

State run retirement is better than self-directed plans because as a rule, the individual does not have the tools to be able to invest wisely. 401K plans which were the US privately directed pension funds have lost about half of their value due to the economic downturn.
In contrast, government run pension funds are still as good as gold.
Don’t forget that at the end of the day, the government will do what it needs to do to survive, they can print money legally, the same is not necessarily true of other entities.

SSS is like a ponzi scheme with a government guarantee. Unfortunately, that is not much of a guarantee.

i’ve read that earlier news of the actuarial life of SSS that sent shivers down my spine…
2036 is just a few years after my retirement age (though I wish and plan to retire earlier)

DIY retirement planning is the IN thing. I don’t want to end up like my parents who can’t live off their meager pensions after working all their life

– SSS was never designed to fund all of your retirement income. It serves as a supplement.

– SSS enrollment/contribution should be optional.

my definition of viable is that the pension fund should be able to give out at least such amount that will answer for basic needs continually. for me 4,000 is not enough and with its life already determined to be until a particular year, it’s not viable. as much as we can we should supplement it with a DIY retirement planning.

while we’re at it, somebody pls help on how monthly pension is computed. the sss handbook says something about this but not a few people say it’s based on last 5 yrs’ contribution.

The other day I was able to watch partly the episode on a talkshow where the SSS Chairman was the guest. She is calling on OFW’s to revive their monthly contributions and make an investment with their high interest rate.
With her explanations, I am planning to revive mine and maybe put some investment. But now, having read your blog, Im now having a second thought.
Perhaps, i’ll do more research on that institution.

since you have house help, you as a their employer are obligated to remit their SSS member contributions together with your employer contribution.

I knew somebody who retired lately and is having a monthly pension of Php 10K.

Why don’t we ask the SSS how much is the monthly pension should be, if you will retire now.

SSS Should Ask Mr. Garcia of the GSIS , how it is possible to retire on 90% OF PRESENT INCOME , thsi is posible in the GSIS. . That’s performance by any standard. The Pres. shlould stop hiring accountants,lawyers as i have not known any in these professions who have the entrepreneurial spririt, similar to a fund manger, that focuses on performance, return on invested capital.

gay

I stopped paying my SSS, hirap kasi magbayad eh. Imagine sa P1,560/month/member na hulog eh nagbabayad ako ng $4 x 2 na transaction fee (hindi kasi pwede i-combine yong hulog namin ni hubby), which is more than 10% noong contribution. To save on fees, sinubukan ko na rin magbayad ng semi-annual at quarterly pero masama pa rin yong loob ko doon sa transaction fee at mabigat maghulog ng six months x 2. Tapos, I also tried to automate the payment through auto-debit sa BPI - problem pa rin yong processing at kailangan separate savings account pa kami ni hubby. Isave ko na lang pera ko baka mas okay pa.

Di ko maintindihan, bakit hindi nila kayang mag-arange ng easy way to pay SSS contribution. Kung gusto nila mag-remit ang mga OFWs kailangan may paraan na hindi kami gagastos para lang makapag remit. Tutal may auto-debit system naman sa banks, why not tie-up with as many banks as they can. Tapos gawin nilang madali ang processing ng auto debit hindi yong kailangan pang pumunta sa SSS office para ayusin yong auto-debit payment. Tapo pagdating mo SSS, haba ng pila tapos lunch-break pa ng one-hour. I think I won’t continue paying my SSS contribution kung maha-hassle pa rin ako sa pag-ayos ng auto-debit payment.

what is this SSS investment with high interest rate.I am also paying my SSS contribution as an OFW.How can I access my contributions tru the net?I need your help.Thanks

Emman, i asked two sss employees from two different branches that question. I didn’t get the answer. Maybe i asked the wrong persons?

sss employee, pls help me with my question. thanks

my dad, who retired 10 years ago, is receiving 10K a month. so who are the retirees that receive 4K only?

like what acn said, i don’t think anyone should rely solely on SSS to fund his retirement. maliit lang naman talaga ang pension sa SSS and we should have other sources of income when we retire. and now that PERA is now a law, we have another possible source.

for ordinary employees like me, i’m not sure if there’s a way that i can stop contributing to SSS, if i decide to. di ba, mandatory ang contributions sa SSS lalo na kung empleyado ka? di ba, automatic ang kaltas ng SSS sa sweldo? and if hindi nagreremit ng SSS yung company, dapat itong ireklamo. so hypothetically, if i don’t want to contribute, can i just ask the company to stop deducting the contributions from my salary?

While you can argue that your househelp would not be able to retire on an SSS pension, not making any contributions will deprive them of other benefits,such as the ability to avail of small loans for their needs. I have spoken to some household help and drivers who have benefited from this during hard times. Because these employees tend to not have any other assets for collateral, this could be their only viable option with reasonable rates. Don’t deprive your househelp of that benefit.

Hi Ms Salve

Can you please explain PERA in your blog? I believe a lot of us would benefit from this discussion. Thanks!

Vanessa

how can we invest in PERA? Is it true that this is more viable than SSS? My husband is a self-employed and he’s contributing every month.

@jay-ar, it’s http://www.sss.gov.ph. you need to register to their online facility.

Who are the retirees that receive 4K only?

The pension of the father of Dr. Johnny Noet Ravalo “is only slightly more than P4,000 a month after working all his life.”

A seaman made contributions based on maximum bracket most of the time. When he left the job he continued as voluntary member and based his contributions on the low bracket. According to him, his pension was based on the last 5 yrs’ contributions which coincided with the period when he was a voluntary member. He is now receiving P2,900 monthly pension. I think there’s something wrong here that’s why I asked for help as to what really are the bases of computing monthly pension.

that’s weird. my dad was a seaman, too, when he retired. and his pension is 10K. my mother-in-law, a retired professor, receives 8K. so pano kaya computation nun?

I think the pension is based on the bracket of the contribution and the length of time you are contributing. We have a neighbor who stopped working long time ago, like early 80’s or late 70’s. He is receving his pension now. I can’t remember the amount but I was surprised that despite stopping his contributions more than 20 years ago, the amount is ok - good enough as personal allowance (but i’m afraid not enough for him to live).

If possible, please publish all SSS benefits available to members detailing the calculations of such benefits. Thanks.

It’s actuarial life has only 27 years left? And SSS doesn’t have enough funds? Seriously guys?

The article said that the contribution is low, but think about HOW MANY individuals that are contributing mandatorily to the fund.

I personally wouldn’t contribute to it if I had the choice. Think of it? What would you get in return?

It’s more of the people managing the funds doesn’t know how to invest the fund or like many corrupt officials, are pocketing the money for themselves.

While we want to want higher pension income when we retire, the time to ask how much we need is when we are still working and not when we retire. The Pension from SSS is never enough, it should be incumbent to all presently working to buy insuranc epolicies as complimentary to ensure there is enough when we retire.

In fairness, the contributions to SSS are low. Sa GSIS more than 20% of the salary goes to contributions (dont know exactly if this still true or if the number is correct but for sure malaki - somebody verify).

Sad naman kung mawawala ang SSS. So many people depend on it.

I’m an OFW and I do want to continue my contributions. Panu ba maging easy magcontribute kung nasa labas?

In my own understanding, your monthly pension will depend on how much is your monthly contribution…so kung malaki monthly contribution mo malaki din makukuha mong pension.. correct me if I’m wrong. Since I started contributing, I’m so confident that my contribution is safe since I can always check my payment thru online BUT for almost 6 months now I don’t understand why I cannot open anymore their (SSS) website!!!! and this bothered me coz I worked overseas, I asked my sister to ask for a printout but SSS staff said NO!!! I always pay my contribution in advance but at the moment i didn’t pay yet for 2 months,I’m worried, although from the start all my receipt is intact just to make sure.

i dont like when people are complaining about their SSS contributions. It is the government and the employers who shoulder most of the premium costs. I believe that there is no financial institution that can give you all these benefits (retirement, death, disability, sickness, maternity, etc) with just a small employee contribution.

Consider this, suppose you contribute the maximum amount (500 pesos) to SSS from age 21 to age 60, then your total contribution to SSS is

40 years X 12 months X 500 pesos = 240,000.

Then consider only the retirement benefit. Say you retire at age 60 and live upto at least 75. Your monthly retirement benefit promised by SSS is around 12,000 for people contributing the maximum amount as of today (based on the computation from their guidelines for 40 years of service). Your total retirement benefit will be at least

15 years X 13 months X 12,000 pesos = 2,340,000!!!!

There is no bank, insurance firm or preneed institution that can give and guarantee you this benefit (retirement palang yan til age 75, may death, disability income, sickness, funeral, etc pa). Also, i doubt that the retirement benefit will still stick at 12,000 by the time we retire. They usually adjust it periodically, hence monthly benefits can even be 20,000 by the time we retire. So it can easily reach 4 million!

I hope people will realize the following as well

1. SSS/GSIS are not charity insitutions.

2. Social Security is mandated in almost all countries. Iba iba lang ng way to distribute and handle the funds. Pero almost all of them will require employee contribution.

3. Politicians should stop meddling with these institutions. For example, mahilig nilang i-recommend na itaas ang benefits ng current retirees without studies to support them. Maganda lang kasing pakinggaan so lagi nilang sinasabi yun pero frequent increase in monthly benefits of the retirees will dwindle the funds of SSS wich can affect both retiress and future retirees. Di din nila pwedeng gamitin ang fund for stimulus packages for recession dahil hindi yun ang purpose the social security. They should listen to ACTUARIES (search it is wikipedia if you’re not familiar) and not to POLITICIANS since they are the ones who understand and calculate all of these. Their recommendations should be respected and supported by our leaders. Anong alam ng mga senador natin pagdating dyan??? Our politicians can help by making sure that the enough safeguards are in place pag dating sa fund management plus a thourough audit para safe ang pera natin.

4. Social security works!

5. Retirement benefits from Social Security are used to SUPPLEMENT our retirement income. Hindi sya dapat ang MAIN SOURCE. We Filipinos should learn how to save. Mahilig lang kasi tayo sa malakihan at immediate earnings. Kaya maraming naloloko sa pyramid na yan eh. tsk tsk tsk. Do you research pag dating sa investment and retirement.

6. Sa mga nag cocomplain ng retirement benefits ng parents or kakilala nila, check muna nila kung magkano ba ang total na binayad ng parents nila sa SSS at the time they are working. I bet pag ginamitan mo ng simple arithmetic, you will realize that ang laki ng kinita and makukuha nila in comparison to their contibutions

Kaya ako, I am happy to contribute to my social security (mas masakit sa loob ko yung tax contribution, grrrr), kasi alam ko pakikinabangan ko to sa future. We should encourage people and business to participate (although madated yan by law) in SSS. So mas maraming matulungan ang SSS sa future at di tayo maging pabigat sa ating mga anak. By the way, I am not from SSS or GSIS. I am just familiar with social security and studied it for sometime. Dami ko pa gusto sabihin pero next time nalang. Sorry for taking too much space from this blog.

according to the GSIS TV ad, yung funds naman nila will last until 2055 and beyond.

Would it be possible if I, myself, as an employee of a company, cease to give my contributions to SSS? Would I not be penalized on it?

nina….. you can pay your SSS monthly contributions, (you and your wife), thru bancnetonline. walang service fee, walang hassle, mabilis pa ang posting. ako, ganyan ang ginagawa ko.

mzkukuro, there are many ways to remit payments pero lahat sila hassle. it’s a matter of choosing kung ano ang less hassle for you.

1st option:
search the SSS website kung may SSS office kung saan ka naka-base. dun ka sa kanila mag-inquire how to remit payments. dati dito ako sa qatar nagbabayd kaso: mabagal ang update, usually 6 months delayed. when you check the SSS website hindi nag-aappear agad kahit bayad kana. 2nd, mahal ang remittance fee. hindi ko kasi ma-take, i’m paying aremittance fee, which is more than 10% of what i am remitting. 3rd, kung misanan naman ang hulog, mabigat ang pagbayad.

2nd option:
ask a relative to make the payment at the nearest SSS office or bank. cons: mahaba ang pila sa SSS, ubos ang oras lalo na kung abutan ka ng lunch break. 2nd, pag may malapit na SSS office, ayaw tumanggap ng payment ng bangko. 3rd, minsan naniningil ng collection fee ang banks.

3rd:auto-debit
okay sana to kaso hassle pa rin. una, kailangan mag-apply personally sa SSS office. Kailangn pumunta ka sa SSS office na malapit sa bank mo (your bank has to be one the banks where SSS auto-debit is allowed such as BPI), otherwise SSS will not entertain you. gaya dati pumunta ko sa SSS bataan di daw pwede apply doon kasi BPI manila account ko. kailangan din own account. meaning di pwede gamitin ang account ng iba pambayad kaya kami dati ng hubby ko kailangan namin mag-apply separately and we need our own bank accounts.

hay, tinigil ko na ang SSS payments namin. sobrang frustrating. i mean sa sobrang advance na ng technology di pa ba pwedeng gawan ng paraan na maging efficient ang pagbayad nag contribution for voluntary and OFW members like thru fund transfers. Gosh, dito nga may mga ATM machine na nagrerecognize ng money. shoot mo pera mo, credited agad ang payment sa card, utilities, etc. I mean, sana mag-invest na mga ganong machine ang SSS kesa magbayad sila ng empleyado na ang susungit di man lang ngumiti pero ang lalki ng sweldo at bonuses…

before pwede mo ma-view ang status ng SSS account mo type mo lang yong name birthday at sss nummber.
ngayon, binago na may hinihinging number kaso yong number na yon, nakikita yon sa resibo ng SSS. so kung thru company ang bayad mo ewan ko pano ma-obtain ang number na yon.

Seems like not only we are having issues with the pension scheme in place. My grand parents are retirees and they live on only around $460 a fortnight. Thats what you would expect paying for a 2 weeks rent in melbourne. Times are worst but no viable solutions are being proposed. Well pension pay-out seems not worth it when considering the amount of hard work my oldies had to do. I do agree with a do it yourself retirement scheme. When you think about it, when super funds(in relation to where i come from) are losing money , you better start finding new alternatives. Doing it yourself may be an option.

Ash Naeck
Owner of http://www.forex-trading-domain.com. All you need to know about Forex Trading.

Hi nilo - thanks for reminding me that SSS payments may be done thru bancnet - at least those whose banks are affiliated with bancnet has additional option.

I already have accounts in three of our banks - BDO, HSBC and BPI and none of them was affiliated with bancnet. I really don’t want to open a new account and if ever I decided to open a new one I will have to send money separately in that account so it’s just like sending payments to SSS directly.

Hi Nilo,

I just visited bancnetonline and I found out that HSBC is already part of bancnet but it’s not yet in the list of the banks. When HSBC appears on the list - I might be able to pay our SSS online..

-nina

@nina

I visited SSS (was on vacation recently) and they told me that kailangan pala i-change yung account (to something like voluntary contributions for OFW) ko so I can make contributions again. So I will do that first.

Yeah. I remember going to the SS office @mzkukuro

here in Qatar to update my membership as voluntary OFW. Honestly, I don’t understand why you need to update your status before continuing your SSS payments. Will contributions be forfeited if the membership status is not changed? So much hassles really. I’m sure not kung gusto ko pa asikasuhin yong SSS namin when I go home for vacation. Good Luck.

You must have read my mind. I was going to e-mail about this to ask you if it’s worth remitting my annual contribution for this year.

Hey, I gave birth last year (CSection) and filed an SS claim sa SSS office here in Kuwait. I got a check for 39K (pesos) after 2 months of submitting my docs. I was very pleased. I’m glad I paid my contributions. Parang nabawi ko na ung nahulog ko! I used it to open an account for my baby boy! Ung SS representative dito sa Kuwait very helpful and professional! Nga pla ung website ng SSS di nagwwork ano ba yan!

[...] Is SSS financially viable? [...]

Ive been an sss member since 1998. I was employed then but now Im contributing as a voluntary member. Dati 378 contribution ko then when I resigned di ako nakahulog ng ilang months. I resumed and paid 188 per month then after 2 months of paying 188, I upraded it to the 988 per month. Total monthly contributions Ive made as of now amounted to 36,622.00 covering 64 months of contribution (ilang months kasi akong hindi nakacontribute). Tanong ko, with that monthly payment I’ve been making mga magkano ang pension on my retirement age? How do they compute the pension? Can I also apply for housing improvement loan even though im just a voluntary member? Hope someone answers my query. Thanks a lot!