The Social Security System on Wednesday said it paid out a total of P236.3 billion in benefits from January to November 2022. This is up 13.2 percent from the P208.8 billion it paid out during the same time last year.

The increase in disbursements this year was due to the rise in benefits claims, the number of members and pensioners, and the number of benefits released for retirement, disability, and death, said SSS President and CEO Michael G. Regino

"For the first 11 months of 2022, we received 4.58 million benefit claims. This is 7.3 percent higher than the 4.27 million benefit claims we received for the same period last year," Regino said.

"Our pensioners, which stood at three million in 2021, grew to 3.18 million by November 2022. Meanwhile, our retirement, disability, and death benefit monthly disbursements averaged at P16.6 billion in 2021, increased to P19.53 billion for January to November this year," he added.

SSS benefits
The amount of SSS benefits paid out and the number of claims increased by an average of 11.4 percent and 7.9 percent, respectively, from 2016 to 2021.

However, both of these numbers dropped by one percent in 2020 because of the Covid-19 pandemic.

SSS benefit payments have been increasing in recent years. This is because people are getting more money each month, a new benefits program is being used, and the salary base used to figure out benefits has gone up.

Memorandum
Based on a Memorandum from the Executive Secretary dated 22 February 2017 as authorized by the President of the Philippines, the SSS gave pensioners an extra P1,000 each month in 2017.

Starting in January 2023, the SSS contribution rate will go from 13 percent to 14 percent, an increase of one percent.

The contribution from the employer will go up to 9.5 percent, while the contribution from the employee will stay at 4.5 percent.

On the other hand, the one percent increase will be paid for by Overseas Filipino Worker members who are self-employed, volunteer or work on land.

The lowest and highest monthly salary credit will go up from P3,000 to P4,000 and from P25,000 to P30,000, respectively.