SSS: “[W]e designed this consolidated program to help them settle their loan obligations”
SSS — The Social Security System announced a new loan penalty condonation program for its qualified members.
Citing the impact of the coronavirus pandemic, the state-run private sector workers’ pension fund on Thursday announced a new loan penalty condonation program.
Under the said program, the state-run pension fund said that it will combine the principal and interest of past-due short-term member loans into a consolidated loan, with all unpaid penalties condoned and consolidated once the loan is fully paid.
According to the state-run pension fund, qualified members can choose an installment scheme where they will be required to pay at least 10 percent of the consolidated loan within 30 calendar days after the approval notice. Qualified members will be given up to 60 months to pay the remaining balance, depending on the loan amount.
“We want to collect the past-due loans from our members. However, we also recognize that the pandemic has greatly affected the livelihood of many of them,” SSS president and chief executive officer Michael Regino said in an emailed statement to GMA News Online. “At this point, they might already be able to pay their loan obligations.”
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Regino also said that the SSS designed the said program to help its members settle their loan obligations by condoning the penalties and offering flexible payment terms.
GMA News Online reported that SSS members eligible for the program are those members with a past-due short-term loan, haven’t been granted any final benefit such as permanent total disability.
Qualified members must also have an active account on the agency’s My.SSS platform and shouldn’t have any record of fraud.
For those members who do not meet the payment terms, the state-run pension fund said that it will deduct the outstanding balance of the consolidated loan from the short-term benefits and final benefits.
Based on the report, the outstanding balance from the consolidated loan can also be deducted from the death benefit of the members’ beneficiaries or can be deducted from the actual final benefit claims.
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