Employers urged: Apply for SBWS if workers fail to avail of CAMP

CEBU CITY— The Department of Labor and Employment (DOLE) in Central Visayas is urging establishments, whose employees were unable to avail of COVID-19 Adjustment Measures Program (CAMP), to apply for the Small Business Wage Subsidy (SBWS) program.

The establishments, whose applications were unfortunately not approved or even if approved but could no longer be accommodated by the DOLE’s budget on CAMP, are highly encouraged to apply for and avail of the SBWS Program of the Department of Finance (DOF), according to a DOLE-7 emailed press release.

However, companies have until today, Friday, May 8, 2020, to submit applications for SBWS. 

DOLE-7 is finalizing the list of the over 31,000 beneficiaries who have been paid under the CAMP program. The final list of CAMP beneficiaries would be submitted to the DOLE Central office, DOLE-7 Regional Director Salome Siaton said.

All DOLE regional offices would be required to submit their final list of paid CAMP beneficiaries, which the DOLE Central Office, would be endorsing to and sharing with the Department of Finance (DOF) for its SBWS program, Siaton added.

Under the SBWS, qualified beneficiaries in Central Visayas will receive a wage subsidy amounting to P6,000 for two months.

According to Siaton, DOLE-7 had  received a total budget of P158.09 million for CAMP, which was all exhausted as of April 30, 2020. 

“This amount has already been depleted. Yes, it was not able to accommodate all the affected workers in region. That’s the sad truth and the primary limitation that had been confronting us in our implementation of the program is limited funds,” she said.

The DOLE-7 registered 31,618 workers benefiting from the amount coming from 1,403 companies region-wide.

It can be recalled that effective April 15, 2020, 5:00 p.m., DOLE suspended the acceptance of all online CAMP applications due to depleted funds.

Applications for SBWS can be done through the following methods:

METHOD 1: My.SSS account (via www.sss.gov.ph). This may be used by all pre-qualified employers who have a My.SSS account on the SSS website. For instructions, visit: https://sites.google.com/dof.g…/small-business-wage-subsidy

METHOD 2: E-form submission through secure site (via secure link sent through email). This is only for pre-qualified employers with emails on file with SSS. The instructions have been sent to them.

METHOD 3: File upload through secure site (Microsoft Excel file upload to sbws.sss.gov.ph). This may be used by all employers pre-qualified for the SBWS program. For instructions, visit: bit.ly/SBWSMethod3pdf

To check if your business is pre-qualified:

Please visit the BIR page: https://www.bir.gov.ph/images/sbws/index.php

For instructions, see: https://www.bir.gov.ph/…/How-do-we-determine-if-an-employer…/dbs

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