House bill filed for SSS to speed up payment of members’ claims
Quezon City 2nd district Representative Winston “Winnie” Castelo, who chairs the House Committee on Metro Manila Development, filed House Bill (HB) No.3544 or the “Expeditious Payment of SSS Benefits Act of 2016,” which mandates the Social Security System (SSS) to speed up the processing and payment of claims of legitimate claimants and beneficiaries.
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Once approved, the bill will require SSS to pay its members their retirement, maternity, sickness, disability, death, and funeral benefits, as well as loans, within a month or 30 days from the day the application and complete requirements are filed.
According to the Civil Service Commission (CSC), the SSS continues to tally the highest number of complaints in the President’s Hotline 8888 from August 1 to 24. Most complaints are regarding the slow pace of transactions.
“SSS members who come to us for assistance complain that it would take three to six months for their claims to be paid out,” said Castelo, chairman of the Metro Manila Development Committee.
The proposed law also mandates the SSS to issue and promulgate stricter and more simplified rules, regulations, mechanics, and guidelines to expedite the processing and payment of all claims so that the benefits can immediately by enjoyed by SSS members and their beneficiaries.
In the Explanatory Note, Castelo noted that SSS members and beneficiaries often “suffer the brunt of a rather tedious, difficult, and delayed processing” of their claims, preventing them from enjoying the benefits due them at the time they are needed.
However, the SSS has acknowledged the delay in the payment of claims in the past. It also promised to adopt measures to significantly reduce the time required to process them.
Last year, the state pension fund adopted a five-year program to cut down the processing of retirement benefits which on average took 39 days, death benefits which took 62 days, disability claims which took 31 days, employees’ compensation which took 49.
The Commission on Audit (CoA) has also taken the SSS to task for the delay, noting in a 2014 audit report that it deprived the members of their benefits at the time most needed.
The CoA noted that an evaluation of sample benefit payments processed at three SSS branches in the National Capital Region showed that “the processing time from filing date to check date (approval of payment) ranged from at least two months to as high as six months.”
The audit report said out of 1,030 sample paid claims from January to December 2014, 649 had a processing time of two months, 255 had three months, 94 had four months, 30 had five months, and 2 had six months. Most of these were retirement claims.
The audit also showed that out of the 9,614 claims pending at the three centers as of December 31, 2014, 2,344 claims were for evaluation, 2,612 were returned/rejected by the processors, 319 required additional documents, 3,845 were for proof list review, and 494 were returned by reviewers to processors.
Source: mb.com.ph, journal.com.ph
