To ease the burden on pensioners amid fast-rising prices of basic goods and services, Baguio City Rep. Mark Go has filed a bill that seeks to increase the monthly pension for Social Security System (SSS) pensioners by P2,000.
Go filed House Bill 3000, which when passed into law, will grant the P2,000 hike across the board in four tranches over four years to cushion the impact on the actuarial life of the social security agency.
According to the bill, the four tranches shall be implemented as follows:
First year of implementation – monthly pension increase of P500; second year of implementation – monthly pension increase of P1,000; third year of implementation – monthly pension increase of P1,500; and fourth year of implementation onwards – monthly pension increase of P2,000.
There are around 2.9 million pensioners as of July 2021, with more than half of them retirement pensioners while the rest are disability or death pensioners.
The SSS’ previous implementation of a P1,000 increase caused confusion among pensioners over inconsistent pronouncements of an implementation of a second tranche, who are left expecting in the midst of the continuous spike in the prices of basic goods and services. “The passage of this bill shall be able to provide assistance and relief to the pensioners who are some of the most vulnerable members of our society,” Rep. Go said. – Press release
