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Social Security System (SSS) Philippines Benefits List - What You Need to Know

If you’re a Filipino working for a private corporation in the Philippines, you should have Social Security System (SSS) benefits. Social security  is mandated by law .

It provides “protection to members and their families against the hazards of disability, sickness, maternity, old age, death and other contingencies resulting in loss of income or financial burden” as stated in  Section 2 of Republic Act 8282.

In other words, it’s a safety net that the government has setup to protect Filipino workers and their families from these hazards mentioned above. Specifically, social security provides financial help when the need arises.

Taking the Time to Learn

If you’re like me, I have given little effort to know about the specific benefits I can get from SSS. Although I am a believer in the power of information, I have always thought I can know about it later when I need to. But that line of reasoning just pushed the task to a later time without actually getting it done.

When you visit  the website of SSS, you can actually learn all about these benefits. They have the details of the benefits  which you can read about. It’s not my aim to replicate all of those details in this post. That would not add value to your time in reading this article.

SSS Benefits Simplified

What I want to achieve is a simple but clear explanation that you can easily recall when an SSS benefit is applicable to you or people you know. You can always find out the details later when you have to. But to forget that you have a benefit to avail of due to your current situation is  unacceptable.

So I have a list below telling you when you can avail of these benefits together with a short description of what the benefit entails. It’s all you need to know to prompt you to avail of your benefits and know more about the details later on.
  1. Sickness benefit - in case of sickness or injury and you can’t go to work, SSS will pay you a daily allowance. The basic things to remember before you even consider this benefit are these:
    • You are unable to work for at least four days.
    • You have used up all your company sick leaves with pay for the year.
  2. Maternity benefit - giving birth or having a miscarriage also entitles a female member of SSS to daily allowances. Key things to know are the following:
    • Normal delivery or miscarriage entitles the member to a 60 days worth of daily maternity allowance.
    • Caesarean section delivery will get 78 days worth of daily maternity allowance.
  3. Retirement benefit - when you retire, you will have your benefit in monthly pension or lump sum. Of course there are basic requirements to avail:
    • You must be at least 60 years old and retired from work to avail of this benefit.
    • You should have paid at least 120 monthly contributions prior to retirement. If not, you’ll get a lump sum amount instead of the monthly pension. 
    • At age 65, you may claim the retirement benefit regardless if you’re employed or not.
    • A retiree is entitled to a 13th month pension paid every December.
    • Children of a retiree conceived on or before retirement date are also entitled to a dependent’s pension equal to 10% of the member’s monthly pension or 250 pesos whichever is higher. This stops when the child reaches age 21, gets married or gets employed.
  4. Disability benefit - in case a member suffers from a permanent total or partial disability, he or she is entitled to receive disability benefits. Things to take note about this benefit are the following:
    • A medical and functional assessment is a requirement for the benefit claim to be approved. An annual assessment is also required for all pensioners.
    • A member should have at least 1 month contribution to qualify for disability benefit. The amount of monthly pension depends on the number of contributions and years of membership.
    • Similar benefits for dependent children of retired members apply to disabled members.
  5. Death benefits -in case a member dies, his or her beneficiaries receive monthly pension or lump sum payments. Beneficiaries are usually the spouse and children of the member.
    • The beneficiaries are also entitled to a 13th month pension payable every December.
    • The children of the deceased member are entitled to dependents’ pension similar to a retired member.
    • Funeral grant amounting to 20,000 pesos will be available for burial expenses of the deceased member.
Please note that I did not include quite a few things about these SSS benefits. Details such as how much these benefits will be, how they are computed, what are the requirements to avail,  and others are available in the SSS website in much more details.

Perhaps you will also count loans available to SSS members among the benefits. There are also more information regarding loans from the SSS home page.

For Your Information and Guidance

Just to reiterate, these are basic information that you can use as reminders. It’s not difficult to commit these few details to your memory. That will help you remember the essentials of SSS benefits.

Knowing that gives you the right knowledge as to when you or people you know are entitled to a particular SSS benefit. The next step after that will be to know much more details (if and when needed) so that the benefits are fully taken advantage of.