State-run Social Security System (SSS) said that funeral claims increased more than threefold in the first semester of the year driven by various online service facilities introduced by the pension fund.
In a statement, Aurora C. Ignacio, SSS president and chief executive officer said the company settled 7,158 online funeral claim applications from January to June 2021, amounting to P166.31 million.
Ignacio pointed out that the amount of funeral claims was higher by 314 percent compared with the second semester last year.
More members are now comfortable using SSS’ various online service facilities, which is evident in the tremendous increase received and processed for settlement, Ignacio noted.
“Now that the My.SSS Portal is very accessible for members and claimants to virtually transact with SSS and conveniently receive their cash benefits through their disbursement accounts, we are highly receiving positive feedbacks from stakeholders,” Ignacio said.
“Long queues in branches have been reduced while the processing time for benefit settlements has also been shortened,” She added.
In compliance with the Ease of Doing Business and Efficient Government Services Delivery Act of 2018, the SSS implemented the mandatory online filing of funeral claims through the My.SSS Portal along with other services and programs in July 2020.
Funeral benefit, which ranges from P20,000 to P40,000, is granted to whoever defrayed the cost of funeral expenses of the deceased SSS member, permanent total disability pensioner, or retirement pensioner.
To submit applications, the claimant must have a registered account in the My.SSS Portal in the SSS Website and enrolled disbursement account under the Disbursement Account Enrollment Module (DAEM) located in the E-services Menu of the same portal.
Under the current Circular No. 2021-007 issued by the SSS last July, having an issued SSS Unified Multi-Purpose ID (UMID) or SSS digitized ID or application for UMID card is no longer a pre-requisite for online filing of the funeral claim.
Meanwhile, non-SSS member claimants may submit their duly-accomplished funeral claim application and supporting documents at the nearest SSS branch.
Payments of funeral benefit shall be automatically credited to the claimant's UMID card enrolled as ATM, or their preferred disbursement account registered by the claimant through DAEM, if without a UMID card enrolled as ATM.