The Social Security System (SSS) has started issuing Employer (ER) Numbers to household employers, as part of the SSS registration requirements under the newly-signed Kasambahay Law that ensures the social security protection of househelpers such as maids, family drivers, nursemaids or yaya, gardeners, cooks, or laundry women.

SSS Officer-in-Charge Edgar B. Solilapsi said that any person who engages the services of a househelper and actually pays the compensation for such services is considered the Household Employer.

“Whether the husband or the wife, or any person in the family or household who shoulders the househelper’s salary, they must also register with the SSS so that they can be issued their own ER Number, which they will use whenever they pay for the SSS contributions of their househelp,” Solilapsi explained. “This ER Number will be different from the individual social security (SS) number that currently-paying household employers use, as we want to make a clear differentiation between contributions for their own social security and those for their househelpers.”

Under previous SSS guidelines, household employers use their own SS numbers when paying contributions for their househelpers. A new SSS guideline now mandates that all household employers shall be assigned their own ER numbers.

“For new Household Employers, or for those who stopped being a Household Employer but have now resumed as such, they must complete the SSS Form R-1 or Employer Registration Form and submit this to the nearest branch so that their new ER number can be issued to them. They must also submit the SSS Form R-1A or Employment Report so that their househelpers can be reported to us,” Solilapsi noted.

For currently-paying household employers who are paying contributions for their househelpers using their own SS numbers, they may continue doing so until the SSS issues them their own ER number upon submission of their latest Contribution Collection list (SSS Form R-3). The ER number may also be sent through email if the employer is enrolled in the SSS website or through the mail if enrolled in the Auto-Debit Arrangement Program with participating banks.

“It is important for Household Employers to remember that their obligations do not end with their paying the monthly SSS contributions of their househelpers. They must also submit the quarterly SSS Form R-3 so that we know to whom those contributions must be credited,” Solilapsi added.

The deadline for payment of SSS contributions depends on the tenth digit of the ER number. For 1 or 2, the payment deadline is on the 10th day of the month following the applicable month; for 3 or 4, the 15th day of the month; for 5 or 6, the 20th day of the month; for 7 or 8, the 25th day of the month; and for 9 or 0, on the last day of the month. The SSS forms for employers, meanwhile, are available at all SSS branches or may be downloaded through the SSS website (www.sss.gov.ph).

By BD

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