SSS revenues up 9.3% to P175B
SOCIAL SECURITY System posted single-digit growth in its revenues for the first 11 months of 2017 driven by bigger collections in members’ contributions.
In a statement sent to reporters over the weekend, the state-run agency said total revenues of the pension fund stood at P174.94 billion in the January-November 2017 period, up 9.3% or P14.92 billion from the P160.02 billion in the same period in 2016.
Broken down, member contributions grew to P144.36 billion in the eleven months ended November, almost 10% higher than the P131.28 billion reported in the same period the prior year.
Contributions accounted for 82.5% of SSS’ total revenues.
“The growth in our contribution collection is primarily due to the collection drive of the current administration of the Social Security Commission along with the efforts of SSS employees who are in direct contact with our employer- and employee-members every day,” SSS President and Chief Executive Officer Emmanuel F. Dooc said.
Meanwhile, investment and other income rose by 6.4% to P30.58 billion from the P28.74 billion booked in the comparable year-ago period.
The increase was driven by income from government securities, equities, and salary loans which stood at P11.04 billion, P8.15 billion and P7.61 billion, respectively.
“Total investments, representing 92.6% of the pension fund’s total assets, went up by P16.68 billion due to additional placement in government bonds, new salary loans releases including restructured member loan accounts and the reclassification of real estate properties,” Mr. Dooc explained.
Meanwhile, SSS doled out more than P157.39 billion in benefit payments to its about 35 million members in the period, up from P123.17 billion in 2016.
“This includes the release of the P1,000 additional pension benefit mounting to P30.85 billion from January to December 2017.”
“The third and fourth tranches’ pension adjustment arising from unlumping of 1985 to 1989 contributions amounting to P72.43 million and P66.92 million given in June 2017 and September 2017, respectively, to SSS death, retirement and disability pensioners also contributed to the increase in benefit payment,” Mr. Dooc added.
