THE Social Security System (SSS) is expecting to surpass this year the P83-billion net income it recorded last year, counting on its stock market investments and contributions from members to boost revenues.
The pension fund for private sector workers is aspiring for a bottom line of “over P100 billion” this year, SSS President and CEO Rolando Macasaet told a press conference on April 4.
Macasaet said the SSS set that profit goal on expectations of bigger contributions from its 42 million members, which are targeted to increase by 2 million this year. In the first quarter alone, he said the SSS was able to add half a million new members already.
Moving forward, the SSS boss said the pension fund is eyeing to grow its membership by at least 2 million on average per year to ensure it has enough working-age members who can support rising pension costs amid a projected increase in the aging population in the coming years.
Investments
The SSS is projected to spend P278 billion this year on benefit payments to its 3.6 million pensioners, up from P259.03 billion in 2023.
“A bigger portion or percentage of the Filipino populace should be members,” Macasaet said.
Apart from contributions, Macasaet said the SSS is also expecting higher returns from its investments in the stock market.
“The stock market today is almost 7,000. We will hit 7,000. They are predicting a little over 8,000 by year-end,“ he said. “So you can imagine the amount of income we’ll make.”
Financial results showed revenue of the SSS from its investment and other incomes amounted to P53.08 billion in 2023, surpassing the previous year’s target of P36.31 billion by P16.77 billion.
Delinquencies
At the same time, the SSS reported that its aggressive crackdown on delinquent employers brought down uncollected contributions by 39 percent year-on-year to P56 billion in 2023.
Macasaet said the SSS has filed cases in court against 2,422 errant employers, a majority of which have opted to settle their delinquencies either through full payment or via installment schemes. That, in turn, resulted in a record-high collection of P1.37 billion in 2023, from P1.15 billion in 2022.
“Our campaign must be working,” the SSS chief said. (Ian P. Cigaral © Philippine Daily Inquirer)
