SSS pensioners to get 10% hike in monthly benefits

All pensioners of the Social Security System (SSS) will get a 10 percent increase in their monthly retirement benefits retroactive on September 1, 2006, the government- run agency announced recently. SSS Chairman Thelmo Cunanan said the across-the-board increase in monthly pensions seeks to assist pensioners to cope with the rising costs of basic commodities.

"We are sharing this because we feel we have improved the pension fund. The investments of the pension fund are much better and we would like to share this with the pensioner members," Cunanan said. From July to August, Cunanan said the pension fund agency has earned P1.6 billion in revenues, which were enough to cover the 10 percent increase in monthly pensions of its members.

Of the 26 million contributors to the SSS, around half a million are pensioners, he said. Cunanan also assured that the SSS has enough funds to serve its members in the next three decades. He boasted that the "actuarial life" of the SSS has been stretched from five years in 2001, when Arroyo assumed the presidency, to 27 years today due to sound fund management. - Jasmin R. Uy/QSB