The Social Security System has approved over P1.923 billion loans under its enhanced pension loan program (PLP) from January to August, benefiting 43,424 retirement pensioners.
SSS President and chief executive officer Aurora Ignacio said this year’s approved pension loans are down by 17 percent against P2.311 billion approved for the same period last year.
“We can attribute the decrease in approved pension loans to the lower number of pensioner-borrowers this year. SSS records showed that there were 43,424 pensioner-borrowers from January to August 2021, which is 15 percent lower than the 51,121 borrowers in 2020,” she said.
“It is partly due to the restricted mobility for senior citizens brought by the quarantine protocols. Also, some of them are still repaying their pension loans granted to them last year,” Ign
PLP was launched in September 2018 to assist SSS retirement pensioners in their financial needs and prevent them from becoming victims of private loan sharks with higher interest rates and taking their automated teller machine cards as collateral.
Ignacio encouraged the retirement pensioners to avail of the program since it is designed to help them in their short-term financial needs.
“We recognize that they need financial assistance to help augment their daily expenses, especially that we are in a pandemic. PLP can help cover expenses for their medicines, vitamins, and other healthcare needs,” she stressed.
Under the program, a qualified retirement pensioner can avail a loan equivalent to three, six, nine or 12 times their basic monthly pension, plus the P1,000-additional benefit.
The loanable amount should not exceed the maximum loan limit of P200,000.
In addition, the net take-home pension of the pensioner-borrower should at least be 47.25 percent.
Pension loans would only incur an interest rate of 10 percent per year until fully paid computed on a diminishing principal balance.
