TWO militant lawmakers denounced on Wednesday the plan of the Social Security System to increase its premiums to 14 percent, calling it as another burden to the Filipino people.
ACT Teachers Party-list Representatives Antonio Tinio and France Castro said that the planned increase, along with the recently enacted Tax Reform for Acceleratiolan and Inclusion law, was a double whammy to SSS members.
The lawmakers were reacting to the announcement made by SSS president and chief executive officer Emmanuel F. Dooc who said that the agency plans to raise monthly contributions starting April, which, he claimed, would raise P45 billion in additional collections and extend its fund life by 12 years.
Dooc said that the SSS has already written a formal request to President Rodrigo R. Duterte, asking the president to issue an executive order that would raise the monthly contribution rate to 14 percent starting April this year, or up three percent from the current 11 percent.
According to Dooc, the request also covers a proposal to raise the minimum salary credit to P4,000 from P1,000, as well as the credit cap to P20,000 from P16,000 currently.
“The combined results if we succeed in getting all these requests approved by the President is we will be able to collect more or less P45 billion in additional contribution revenues starting from April to end of this year,” Mr. Dooc told reporters during a press briefing at the SSS Sulit Conference 2018 at Crowne Plaza Manila.
Mr. Dooc said the letter was submitted to Finance Secretary Carlos G. Dominguez III last week, who in turn, would submit the proposal to Duterte after review.
If approved, the SSS still needs to adopt the order before it is implemented.
But Reps. Tinio and Catro, along with the recently enacted Tax Reform for Acceleration and Inclusion (TRAIN) law, was a double whammy to SSS members.
“The SSS leadership says that its members will be able to afford the additional contributions with the TRAIN, but that’s not true. A large majority of its members get zero benefit and only huge disaster from TRAIN, as 75 percent of SSS members are minimum wage earners or poorer,” said Tinio, citing an earlier estimate of SSS president and chief executive officer Emmanuel Dooc.
“Those who earn minimum wage and below get nothing from TRAIN but they are the ones who get hit the hardest by the onslaught of price hikes in basic goods and services,” Tinio added.
Castro, for her part, said the proposed increase in SSS premiums “will further keep the plates of our laborers empty.” “Contribution increase should not be the instant reaction of the SSS. Neither can they use TRAIN and pension increase as their excuse, Castro added.
Tinio and Castro said the SSS should first improve its collection efficiency and decrease the huge bonuses of its board members before proposing contribution hikes to its members,.
“The SSS contribution hike at this time will leave the minimum wage earners with nothing for their daily expenses,” they said.
The two militant lawmakers added that the premium hike will place a greater wall between social security and the self-employed or the separated worker or OFW who have the option of voluntary SSS coverage.
“The Duterte administration is imposing successive and numerous hikes—in the prices of basic necessities because of the TRAIN law, PhilHealth contributions, and now the SSS contributions—which mainly burden the poor with their already meager wages,” Tinio added.
“The people are clamoring for an increase in salaries and wages and lower prices of goods and services. The Duterte administration should listen to the people’s cries before allowing further hikes,” he added.
The two congressmen are joined in their opposition to the SSS scheme by labor group
Associated Labor Unions-Trade Union Congress of the Philippines (ALU-TUCP), who said that it will add burden to millions of workers as prices of commodities soared due to the implementation of TRAIN.
“It is not a good time for employees who are already encumbered by the rising prices of commodities and soaring costs of services triggered by the excise tax on fuel and sweetened beverages of the TRAIN, Michael Mendoza, National President ALU-TUCP said.
“Workers and their families are already having difficulty coping with inflation caused by TRAIN in all food and non-food necessities, any additional deductions on their current take home pay rate would push them into deeper poverty level. Therefore, any additional SSS monthly contribution at this point of TRAIN implementation is not a good time for workers,” the labor group in a statement.
The group said the SSS management should instead seriously consider improving the SSS coffer by running after delinquent employers who refused to remit the contributions of 20 million more SSS members than impose a new additional 3% monthly premium on existing members, Mendoza said.
SSS records show only 14 million of its 34 million registered members are regularly paying their monthly contributions.
He added that cutting excessive bonuses of top officials and improving portfolio investments are other means of improving the SSS fund.
Mendoza said that SSS management could also explore asking for financial subsidy from government through legislation or an executive order as part of government contribution to helping workers cope with rising cost of living.