Members with past due SSS loans urged: Avail of LRP

SOCIAL Security System (SSS) members with outstanding loans have until Oct. 1, 2018 to avail of the second loan restructuring program (LRP).

“Anyone with past due loans, may it be the calamity loan, educational loan … all types of loans, they can apply for the program,” said Lawyer Alberto Montalbo, acting vice president of the SSS Visayas General Division, during a press briefing on Wednesday.

The LRP is a program where members with past due loans may re-adjust their payment period, and exclude penalties from the overall balance.

Under the SSS regulations, 3 percent of the total loan is added every succeeding month to members who failed to settle their loans within the given period.

But if it is paid under the program, this penalty will be abolished.

Over 17,000 members from Cebu and Bohol have applied to the program ever since its launch last April this year.

Overseas workers may also apply for the program, as long as they comply with the documents.

“There are downloadable application forms, including the letter for authorization,” said Montalbo.

Overseas workers may instruct a trusted person to apply for the LRP in their stead.

Those covered under calamity loans however, must present a proof of residency on the time the calamity happened.

Montalbo said that members with past due loans who had failed to apply for the program might suffer huge deductions to their benefits and pension.

Aside from that, he also advised members to check their records online so that they could update their loans and would be able to decide on what to do with their payment dues. /USJ-R Intern Zena V. Magto