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By Alithea De Jesus
With many jobs lost due to the COVID 19 pandemic, the Social Security System (SSS) has so far approved P15.63 billion in coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) calamity assistance loans as of July 28, 2020, and another P190.02 million in unemployment insurance benefits (UIB) from July 1 to 27 this year, to tide over workers hit hard by the pandemic’s economic fallout.
The SSS said it has approved 14,186 applications for the UIB in the said period alone.
From August 2019 when the SSS started accepting UIB applications, and up to July 27, it has approved a total of 43,347 applications with a combined total of P544.37 million, SSS President-CEO Aurora Cruz Ignacio said.
Ignacio said the agency has approved more than 1.03 million applications for its Calamity Loan Assistance Package (CLAP) for the COVID-19 outbreak since its online filing was launched last June 15.
She said that from June 15 to July 28, CLAP applications average P15,144 per claim.
Ignacio said the Calamity Loan for COVID-19 will run for a period of three months starting June until September 14, 2020 only and online application is now mandatory.
President Duterte declared a state of national calamity in the country last March 16 as a result of the COVID-19 outbreak.
The Calamity Loan for COVID-19 carries a 6-percent interest per annum commencing on the 4th month with a 27-month term, inclusive of a 3-month moratorium.
In line with the instructions of Finance Secretary and Social Security Commission (SSC) Chairman Carlos Dominguez III for the SSS to digitize its system in order to speed up the grant of loans and benefits to its members, Ignacio said that starting June 28, CLAP claims were released via “cheque-less” disbursement using DBP PesoNet accredited banks.
She said the SSS has also started using electronic payment systems in releasing the UIB and funeral benefits to its members.
The SSS has made mandatory the online filing of claims for the CLAP since June 15, and also for the UIB starting July 15 to speed up the application process.
Online filing of Funeral Benefit Claims for SSS member-claimants was made available starting July and will be mandatory by August, Ignacio said.
The online filing of the SSS’ retirement benefit for members who are at least 65 years old began in September 2015, while the online applications for the retirement benefit of OFWs and voluntary members who are 60 to 64 years old were made available starting December 2018.
The online filing for both claims, along with the filing of the sickness benefit reimbursement for employers, became mandatory
Online applications for the salary loans were already mandatory since November last year.
“The SSS has issued circulars covering the guidelines for the online filing of funeral benefits and the enhanced filing of retirement benefit claims to make them operational,” Ignacio said.
SSS premium-paying members can avail of the UIB equivalent to half of their average monthly salary credit (AMSC) for a maximum of two months if they are involuntarily separated because of economic downturn, calamity/disaster, redundancy, installation of labor-saving devices, retrenchment or downsizing, closure or cessation of operation, and disease or illness of these employees whose continued employment is prohibited by law or is prejudicial to their or their co-employees’ health.
They should have paid the requisite minimum number of monthly contributions for three years to qualify for this unemployment benefit, twelve of which should have been made in the eighteen-month period immediately preceding the month of involuntary separation.
The UIB is one of the landmark provisions of the Republic Act (RA) No. 11199 or the Social Security Act of 2018.