SSS income drops to P20.3 billion in 2017

MANILA, Philippines — State-run Social Security System (SSS) reported yesterday a net income of P20.3 billion in 2017, 36.56 percent lower than the P32 billion earned the previous year due to rising expenditures brought about by higher pension benefits.

In a statement, SSS president and chief executive officer Emmanuel Dooc said the pension fund’s revenues last year reached P200.5 billion, while total expenditures amounted to P180.2 billion.

Revenues showed a 15 percent improvement from the P174.46 billion recorded in 2016 and also exceeded the 2017 target of P189.79 billion by 5.6 percent.

Dooc attributed this increase to higher premium collections from active SSS members.

“We achieved good numbers in 2017 on the back of our intensified campaign to increase our collections. We are pleased that the efforts of the SSS management and employees paid off,” Dooc said.

Contribution collection, which comprised bulk of the pension fund’s revenues, hit P159.72 billion, up 10.6 percent from the P144.36 billion posted in 2016.

The remaining P40.78 billion of total revenues came from investment and other income, which grew 35.5 percent from P30.10 billion in 2016, the SSS said.

Despite this, SSS data showed the growth in disbursements still outpaced revenue growth. Total expenditures, which include benefit payments and operating expenses, rose 26.5 percent to P180.2 billion from P142.46 billion.

Bulk or P170.68 billion of this amount were released for benefit payments—including maternity, sickness, disability, retirement and death benefits—which climbed 28.4 percent from P132.98 billion the previous year.      

Dooc attributed this to the P1,000 increase in benefits released to SSS pensioners, as approved by President Duterte, starting January 2017.

“As a result, our expenditures, which were made up largely by benefit payments, saw a huge increase compared to 2016, wherein no additional benefit was enjoyed by the pensioners,” he added.

Meanwhile, the SSS said its operating expenses inched up to P9.52 billion from the P9.48 billion in 2016. But the state fund said this is still below the allowed amount mandated by the Social Security Charter.

“Our operating expenses are way below our allowable expense under the Social Security Law of 1991, which is equivalent to not more than 12 percent of the total yearly contributions and three percent of other revenues,” Dooc said.