SSS Pension Hike Veto: ‘Nakatutok Tayo Hindi sa Pagpapapogi, Kundi sa Kinabukasan ng Pamilyang Pilipino’

PNoy survey

Outgoing president Benigno “PNoy” Aquino III vetoed on the PhP 2,000 Social Security System (SSS) pension hike for senior citizens and their dependents. This has transpired many negative criticisms where some even say that the president has no compassion for the poor. However, the government released information telling the reasons why PNoy vetoed on the said claim.

According to gov.ph, the PhP 2,000 SSS pension hike will require an approximate of PhP 56 billion fund annually. They emphasized that this is expected to grow with the increase of pensioners annually.

The main reason for the veto is that SSS will not have enough fund to support this, presenting a computation that SSS may need to file for bankruptcy after 11 years.

SSS earns from the annual contribution of its members and from its investments. For every PhP 1 of contribution, it returns PhP 6 to PhP 15 to the member upon retirement.

The post further details that in order to prevent the bankruptcy of SSS, the following should be done:

  1. Implement a 4.8% increase in member’s contribution, which will lead to about 44% increase to all active SSS members
  2. Reduce government fund on other programs and projects or transfer taxes to SSS
  3. Sell SSS assets

The government emphasized, “Nakatutok tayo hindi sa pagpapapogi, kundi sa kinabukasan ng pamilyang Pilipino.” (Rough translation: We’re focused not on making ourselves look good but on the future of Filipino families.)

At present, there are over 2.15 million pensioners. The government said that if they increase the benefits today, the 33 million active members of SSS might not benefit from SSS in future.

Do you agree with this? Or are there other means that SSS can grow its fund to support the pension hike? Share your thoughts with us.