SSS justifies disallowing separated, unemployed members from getting loans
DAVAO CITY — The Social Security System (SSS) said that while it fully understands and commiserates with the plight of its members affected by the global financial crisis, it is restrained by law from keeping its loan window open to unemployed members.
In a report to President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo, the SSS explained that to “ensure that loans are paid on time, the guidelines of the salary loan program provide that only those members with capacity to pay are allowed to borrow.”
“This means they have to be currently employed and are actively contributing,” SSS added.
The agency was reacting to protests over the disqualification of displaced and unemployed members from securing loans from the System.
The SSS pointed out that under the law, it is authorized to invest only 10 percent of its funds in short loans such as calamity, salary, emergency and other loans.
This statutory limit, the SSS said, has already been surpassed.
“Unless Congress increases the ceiling, SSS cannot afford to liberalize its rules. To ensure that the loans are paid on time, the guidelines of the salary loan program provide that only those members with capacities to pay are allowed to borrow.”
The SSS also informed President Arroyo that it is undertaking both short-term and long-term mitigation programs to help displaced members.
The short-term scheme includes the extension of the availment period of its ongoing condonation program for delinquent short-term loans from end of April 2009 to end of Dec. 2009; the extension of the availment period of the ongoing restructuring, condonation and dacion en pago programs for delinquent housing loans from end of April 2009 to end of the 18-month period provided for in the Implementing Rules and Regulations of Republic Act 9507; and the provision of 2,000 summer jobs for two months to qualified dependents of displaced overseas Filipino workers (OFWs).
The long-term plan, on the other hand, includes participation in the government’s stimulus package by allocating 12.5 billion pesos out of the SSS investment funds to help finance infrastructure projects that could stimulate economic activities and help preserve jobs.
SSS explained that it has yet to make a “formal commitment to these projects given that their details have yet to be finalized. SSS participation, should it push through, shall have to pass thru a rigorous internal review process similar to other SSS investments.” (PIA)
