The Visayas West 1 Division of the Social Security System (SSS) targets the collection of P18.2 million worth of past-due contributions from 52 delinquent employers tagged during a series of Run After Contribution Evaders (RACE) Campaign in Negros Occidental this month.
SSS Vice President for Visayas West 1 Division Dr. Lilani B. Benedian said that violations of these employers are failure to register their business to SSS and non-remittance of their employees’ contribution.
“We intensified our campaign to call out these employers to fulfill their legal obligations. As mandated by the law, they must register their businesses and report for coverage all of their employees regardless of their employment status, deduct from the salaries of their employees their share in the monthly SSS contributions including Employees Compensation and remit these regularly to the SSS,” Benedian said.
Employer’s full compliance shall make their workers eligible to Social Security (SS) benefits such as sickness, maternity, disability, unemployment, retirement, death and funeral, including short-term loan privileges such as salary and calamity loan. On top of the SS benefits, they can also avail of Employees’ Compensation (EC) benefits for work-related contingencies such as sickness, injury or death.
“The conduct of these operations is essentially for our members. It is our responsibility to ensure that they are given the lawful benefit that they are entitled to at times of contingencies, thus collection of contributions is highly significant,” Benedian added.
Benedian shared that the region-wide conduct of RACE Operations resulted in a significant increase in delinquency collection by P45.64 million in January to April 2023 or 80 percent of the P192.30 million collected in the same period last year.
“We are confident that collection would continue its ascent throughout the year since we also offer Contribution Penalty Condonation Program where business owners are given the opportunity to settle their delinquent accounts through one-time payment or instalment terms up to 48 months with five percent downpayment of the principal delinquency and full payment of EC contributions,” Benedian said.
SSS shall assist those business employers who wished to avail of the contribution penalty condonation program through the SSS branch which has jurisdiction over their registered business address. For inquiries, they may send it to any of these SSS email accounts: bago@sss.gov.ph (Bago branch); kabankalan@sss.gov.ph (Kabankalan Branch); sagay@sss.gov.ph (Sagay Branch); sancarlos@sss.gov.ph (San Carlos Branch); victorias@sss.gov.ph (Victorias Branch); bacolod@sss.gov.ph (Bacolod Branch); bacolod-east@sss.gov.ph (Bac East Branch).
