SSS gets IT award

MANILA, Philippines - The Social Security System (SSS) has received an award for its “visionary applications of information technology” that gives members access to their contribution and loan records using mobile phones.

Computerworld, a global media hub based in the United States, picked the SSS as its 2011 Honors Laureate distinction awardees, for the Philippine pension fund’s success of Text-SSS which brings its services closer to workers in the Philippines.

Text-SSS was launched on February 2010 to allow members to check their contributions, loan application status and loan balance. An estimated 130,000 members have registered with Text-SSS as of May 2011.

The pension fund plans to expand Text-SSS services to include inquiries on benefit eligibility and claim status, location of SSS servicing branches and documentary requirements for benefit applications. Loan and benefit applicants would also receive notices through text instead of letters through the mails.

“Access to information is important to our members. We want to make it easy for them to verify if their employers remit their monthly contributions, or if they are qualified to avail of SSS benefits and loans,” Edgar Solilapsi, SSS officer-in-charge, said.

The SSS is an awardee under the human services category of the 2011 Computerworld Honors Program. The awards, which is on its 23rd year, is governed by the Computerworld Information Technology Awards Foundation based in Massachusetts, USA.

To use Text-SSS, members must text their social security number, date of birth (DOB) and name in the following format: “SSS REG <SS number> <DOB MM/DD/YY> <FIRST NAME> <LAST NAME>” to 2600 to register and get their PIN code, which will be used for text-based transactions.