SSS housing loan collectibles hit P6.8 billion

MANILA, Philippines — Housing loan collectibles of the Social Security System (SSS) have reached P6.8 billion with the state-run pension fund now transitioning to a real-time processing of loans for members’ convenience.

As of end-December 2023, SSS said it has 3,744 mortgagors with home loan collectibles worth P6.83 billion.

As such, SSS is implementing the mandatory use of payment reference number (PRN) for housing loan payments starting this month.

The PRN for loans is a system-generated number corresponding to a billing statement of the individual loans by the borrower, which contains certain characters to distinguish the housing loan from other SSS loan programs.

SSS president and CEO Rolando Macasaet said the transition to the real-time processing of loans would make settling obligations easier and efficient for borrowers with same day posting of their payments.

SSS senior vice president Pedro Baoy explained that mortgagors will have one PRN for each outstanding SSS loan.

Borrowers can obtain the PRN every 10th day of the month.

Baoy noted that once the PRN expires, borrowers need to get a new PRN that contains the past due and current amounts as an expired PRN will no longer be accepted for payment.

Further, SSS will send a monthly billing containing the PRN to the mortgagors’ registered email addresses and mobile numbers.

Mortgagors may pay their monthly housing loan amortizations over the counter at SSS branch offices or through SSS-accredited collecting partner banks and payment centers.

Borrowers with outstanding loans in the Direct Individual Housing Loan Program and the Direct Housing Loans for Overseas Filipino Workers, Workers’ Organization Members and Trade Union Members should have a PRN whenever they pay their loan payments.