The Social Security System (SSS) announced that members who have contracted the coronavirus disease or COVID-19 are qualified to avail for sickness benefits.
SSS President and Chief Executive Officer Aurora C. Ignacio mentioned that the sickness benefit constitutes of a daily cash allowance for the number of days that a member cannot report to work due to any sickness or injury, including the contagious COVID-19.
“We are aware that many of our members are getting sick right now. Some of them even got infected by the current Omicron variant. We want to assure them that SSS is providing them with sickness benefit to augment their lost income,” Ignacio said.
Program requirement:
- member must have paid at least three monthly contributions within the last 12 months prior to the semester of sickness or injury
- member has used up all his current company sick leaves for the current year.
- the employer must be notified regarding the sickness or injury
Members that are employed, self-employed, voluntary, and overseas Filipino workers (OFW) are eligible for the sickness benefit grant that can reach up to a maximum of 120 days in one calendar year.
As a protocol, members who contracted the disease must be able to provide a positive RT-PCR or reverse transcription-polymerase chain reaction test.
The daily cash allowance is equivalent to 90% of the member’s average daily salary credit (ADSC).
Example:
If the total of member’s six highest monthly salary credit (MSC) for the 12 months is P96,000, he will have an ADSC of P533.33, and 90% of his ADSC will be P480, which is his daily sickness allowance (DSA). Then, multiply the DSA or P480 by the approved number of days (for example, ten days), to get the member’s total sickness benefit which is P4,800.
“We want to remind the employers that under Republic Act 11199 or the Social Security Act of 2018, they should pay in advance the approved sickness benefit of their employees which is one of their primary obligations,” Ignacio concluded.
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