SSS penalty condonation program only covers employed members

CEBU, Philippines - Social Security System-Cebu branch manager Mario V. Corro clarified that self-employed and voluntary-paying members who are delinquent in the payment of their loans are not included in the penalty condonation program offered by the government insurance system.

“May we inform that the penalty condonation program for salary loan is available only to SSS members who are employed hence it does not apply to self-employed or voluntary-paying members,” Corro said.

The SSS official website earlier posted an article that said “SSS is reminding newly-hired employees who have delinquent loan amortizations with the SSS to inform their current employer of their previous loans or whose loans were granted as self-employed or voluntary-paying members so that their employer can apply for the loan amnesty in their behalf.”

Corro explained that former self-employed or voluntary-paying members who now have employers can avail of the penalty condonation program. Those who remained in the category of self-employed or voluntary-paying member however are not covered in the amnesty.

The SSS is offering penalty condonation program for delinquent loan amortizations of employed members which will end on June 30, 2011. The condonation will apply only to penalties of unremitted loan amortizations that will due on April 1.

The SSS official urged the employees to remind their employers to catch up with the deadline and take advantage of the opportunity to clean their membership records.

Updating of records is necessary for a member to avail of the short-term loan privileges offered by the SSS.

“Mao man g’yud ni ang batasan sa ubang tawo nga adto na molihok kon hapit na ang deadline,” Corro said.

The SSS had earlier suspended the loan privileges of its members whose colleagues in the companies they are working with are having unpaid loans.

The records show that long-overdue payments for loans of the 6.8 million SSS member-borrowers nationwide have already reached P27.5 billion. This prompted SSS officials to implement new policies to improve the collections of delinquent loans.

Under the existing policy, loans are charged 10-percent interest per annum within a period of two years and a penalty of one percent for delinquent loans. Unpaid loans also incur continuing interest and penalties. — (FREEMAN)