Department of Finance (DOF) Secretary Ralph Recto, the ex-officio chair of the Social Security Commission (SSC), approved the improvements to the Social Security System’s (SSS) Calamity Loan Program.
The changes aim to provide quicker financial aid to Filipinos in areas under a state of calamity.
Recto said these enhancements include a lower interest rate and a faster activation process for the loans.
“This is very good news for our countrymen who need immediate financial assistance. If before it took one month to get the loan, now it’s only seven days. Aside from this, we further lowered the interest so it won’t be heavy on the pockets,” he said.
The initiative follows President Ferdinand Marcos Jr.’s directive in May to reduce interest rates and accelerate the delivery of government financial services to disaster-affected Filipinos.
Interest rates for calamity loans have been reduced to 7 percent per year from the previous 10 percent. Last month, the SSS already lowered the interest rate for salary loans to 8 percent per year from 10 percent.
The SSS also streamlined the activation process for its calamity loans to just seven days, a significant improvement from the previous one-month activation period.
Members can renew their calamity loans after six months, provided they make timely payments on the existing calamity loan program (CLP).
The calamity loan is payable within two years, spread across 24 equal monthly installments, with repayments starting the month after the loan is approved. A service fee of 1 percent of the loanable amount will be deducted from the loan proceeds.
To ensure transparency and efficiency, loan proceeds will be disbursed through members’ active Unified Multi-Purpose ID (UMID) ATM cards or active single accounts in any PESONet participating bank.
The reduced interest rates are available to SSS members with good credit records. Interested applicants have 30 days to apply for the program from the date of its announcement in a newspaper of general circulation.
