The Social Security System (SSS) has partnered with the Department of Transportation and Communication (DOTC), Lung Center of the Philippines (LCP) and the Presidential Commission for the Urban Poor (PCUP) for the SSS coverage of job order and contractual personnel from the said government offices.
SSS Senior Vice President for Account Management Judy Frances A. See said job order and contractual workers in state-run institutions are excluded from the mandatory coverage of the Government Service Insurance System (GSIS). A total of 357 workers nationwide — 220 of which are from DOTC, 50 from LCP, and 87 from PCUP — are expected to benefit from these SSS partnerships to date.
“The GSIS mandate applies only to regular employees in the public sector. Hence, the SSS aims to fill in this gap in coverage through linkages with government offices to enable these workers to gain access to social security benefits even while hired as contractual or job order personnel,” See noted.
The job order and contractual workers are covered as self-employed SSS members, with no obligation on the part of their employer to remit counterpart contributions. Aside from SSS benefits, the workers can earn eligibility for SSS loan privileges such as salary and housing loans.
“Payment of contributions and loans is facilitated under an automated salary deduction scheme to make it easier and more convenient for these workers to maintain an active SSS membership. As part of the agreement, SSS has also committed to provide them with information seminars and on-site enrollments for the Unified Multipurpose Identification or ‘UMID’ card,” See noted.
The DOTC, LCP and PCUP accounts are handled by the SSS Mandaluyong, SSS Diliman and SSS San Francisco del Monte branches, respectively. The supervising branches are tasked to coordinate with the designated liaison officers of DOTC, LCP and PCUP to address their SSS concerns.
Other state-run organizations with similar agreements with the SSS include the Department of Social Welfare and Development, Metro Manila Development Authority, Manila International Airport Authority, and the Department of Interior and Local Government for the local government units.
“We urge other government institutions to likewise take the initiative to help their own job order and contractual personnel benefit from the social protection offered by an active membership in the SSS,” See said.
