SSS further extends pensioners’ proof-of-life compliance deadline to Oct. 31

SSS further extends pensioners’ proof-of-life compliance deadline to Oct. 31.

Manila, Philippines — The Social Security System (SSS), the state-run pension fund for private-sector workers, has further extended the deadline to comply with the proof-of-life scheme covering some pensioner-beneficiaries up to Oct. 31 of this year.

In a June 30 circular, SSS president and chief executive Michael Regino said prolonging the cut-off date for the annual confirmation of pensioners (Acop) program by three more months “will give pensioners more time to comply with the requirement, while the country continues to implement the alert level system for COVID-19 response.”

Regino said the highest policy-making body Social Security Commission (SSC) approved this latest extension via a resolution last June 22.

The deadline for Acop was already pushed back thrice: first, to March 31 of this year instead of October last year; and then to June 30.

“The pensions of pensioners who do not comply with the resumption of Acop on or before Oct. 31, 2022 shall be suspended effective the January 2023 pension,” Regino warned.

Acop covers retirement pensioners who live overseas, total disability pensioners, survivor (death) pensioners, and dependent (minor or incapacitated) pensioners.

Since 2017, retirement pensioners living in the Philippines had been exempted from complying with Acop, which was started in 2012 to ensure that the SSS’s pensioner-beneficiaries were still alive and enjoying their benefits.

Before the pandemic happened, pensioners had been required to show up at SSS branches during their birth month. But with the “new normal” brought by COVID-19, the SSS now allows complying with Acop online or through home visits for those with disability.

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