Pensioners’ annual reportorial rule hit

INQUIRER FILE PHOTO/GRIG C. MONTEGRANDE

Bayan Muna lawmakers have sought a congressional probe of the Social Security System’s (SSS) reimplementation of its annual confirmation of pensioners amid the COVID-19 pandemic.

Bayan Muna Representatives Carlos Isagani Zarate, Eufemia Cullamat, and Ferdinand Gaite cited the “confusion and added burden” of pensioners complying with the requirement.

“The reimplementation of the Acop (annual confirmation of pensioners), as it is now, has only caused confusion and added burden to pensioners, the elderly especially, instead of helping them in this time when the pandemic is still ongoing,” they said in House Resolution No. 2504.

The measure urged the House government enterprises and privatization committee to conduct a probe in aid of legislation on the “problematic” implementation of the Acop. The Acop requires SSS pensioners and beneficiaries to personally report before the SSS every year to inform the agency that they are still actively receiving their monthly pension.

The SSS temporarily suspended the rules on this requirement in March 2020 when the COVID-19 pandemic first broke out in the country.

In September 2021, the SSS released the guidelines for the reimplementation of the Acop, which gave pensioners and dependents until March 31 to comply with the requirement.

The guidelines required retirement pensioners living abroad, total disability pensioners, survivor pensioners, and their dependents to comply with the Acop.

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