On 1 May 2025, Araw ng mga Manggagawa, and as announced by His Excellency President Ferdinand R. Marcos, Jr. in his Labor Day message at the SMX Convention Center in Pasay City, the Social Security System (SSS) is recognizing hardworking Filipinos, local or overseas, with enhancements to its loan programs: reducing interest rates for salary and calamity loans; expanding the pension loan program to include surviving spouse pensioners; and implementing a micro-credit loan facility through third-party providers.
Lower interest rates for salary and calamity loans
“As announced early this year, we proposed and obtained approval of the Social Security Commission, headed by our Chairperson Finance Secretary Ralph G. Recto, to reduce interest rates for salary loans and calamity loans. From the current interest rate of 10%, salary loan interest rate shall be reduced to 8% while calamity loan interest rate shall be reduced to 7%,” SSS President and Chief Executive Officer Robert Joseph M. De Claro said.
The reduced interest rate shall be for members who have no availment of penalty condonation in the past five (5) years – in other words, for members who have good credit quality – and will increase cash proceeds from loan applications.
Target implementation of the reduced interest rates for these loan programs is July 2025.
Expansion of pension loan program to surviving spouse pensioners
With successful implementation of the Pension Loan Program (PLP) for retiree pensioners since 2018, SSS is looking to expand the Program now for surviving spouse pensioners. As of December 2024, there are 1.2-M surviving spouse pensioners.
“We acknowledge the need of other pensioners for access to a dependable loan facility, so we are expanding the PLP to surviving spouse pensioners,” De Claro said. The maximum loanable amount shall be P150,000.00.
The PLP for surviving spouse pensioners shall also be covered by Credit Life Insurance with insurance premium to be deducted from the proceeds of the Pension Loan (PL) so that in the event of death of the PL borrower before full payment and end of the loan term, the PL balance shall be fully paid.
Target implementation of the expanded pension loan program, to include surviving spouse pensioners, is September 2025.
Micro-credit loan facility through third-party providers
The SSS has also begun discussions with partner financial institutions on the feasibility of implementing a micro-credit loan facility for SSS members with tenor between 15 to 90 days.
“Currently, we are bringing the idea of a micro credit loan facility among our partner financial institutions through meetings and brainstorming sessions and see if we can address such short-term cash needs of our members. When we see a framework for this micro-credit program, we will implement as soon as possible,” De Claro also said.
Commitment to service excellence
“We offer these enhancements to all Filipino workers, here and overseas, for Labor Day – Araw ng mga Manggagawa. We remain committed to our push for service excellence with program enhancements and innovations,” De Claro further said.
“Next, we are looking at how we can help members through livelihood loans as allowed under Republic Act 11199 or the Social Security Act of 2018 to support whole-of-government approach of President Ferdinand R. Marcos, Jr. in poverty alleviation efforts. For instance, livelihood loans for SSS members working in the transport sector,” De Claro added.
SSS is also initiating efforts on other fronts to enhance service delivery and social security protection for all. Talks are ongoing with the Department of Information and Communications Technology (DICT) on digitalization programs, with PhilHealth for better collaboration through data synchronization, and with specific industries for targeted stakeholder engagements (e.g., mining industry, construction sector, Business Process Outsourcing, and gig economy). #
