The net income of Social Security System (SSS), the state-run pension fund for private-sector workers, declined by almost a fourth to ₱25.3 billion in the first quarter of 2026 as benefits paid to members and pensioners surged.

SSS’ latest condensed statement of comprehensive income showed that its first-quarter net income was 23 percent lower than the ₱32.9 billion recorded a year ago.

End-March total income—comprising service and business income, investment gains, and other non-operating income—rose 11 percent to ₱130.1 billion from ₱116.9 billion in the same period last year.

In particular, service and business income, mainly coming from members’ contributions, climbed to ₱119.9 billion from ₱111.2 billion a year ago, while first-quarter investment gains almost doubled to ₱10.2 billion from ₱5.6 billion. Other non-operating income also increased to ₱56.1 million from ₱49.7 million a year ago.

However, total expenses jumped by a faster 25 percent to ₱104.8 billion from ₱83.9 billion in the first quarter of 2025.

End-March benefit payments to pensioners and members grew 17 percent to ₱85.4 billion from ₱73.2 billion a year ago.

Benefit payments are expected to further increase in the first half of this year as SSS advanced the release of the 2026 increase under its pension reform program (PRP) to June instead of September amid a state of national energy emergency caused by the war in the Middle East.

SSS said last month that it released about ₱6 billion for the early implementation of the pension increase from June to August, benefiting 4.1 million pensioners and their families amid higher energy costs.

Under the second tranche of PRP, monthly pensions for retirement and disability pensioners will increase by 10 percent, while death as well as survivor pensioners will receive a five-percent increase.

PRP is the first multi-year pension increase in SSS’ history, under which pensioners receive annual pension increases every September from 2025 to 2027.

Also, non-cash expenses more than doubled to ₱16.5 billion in the first quarter from ₱7.8 billion a year ago, while financial expenses inched up to ₱78.1 million from ₱77.3 million.

Those higher expenses offset the slight decreases in personnel services to almost ₱2.2 billion as well as maintenance and other operating expenses (MOOE) to ₱684.6 million.

Taking into account the ₱143.3-million realized gain on the sale of financial assets (FA) measured at fair value through other comprehensive income (FVTOCI) and ₱3.9-billion decline in fair value of FA at FVTOCI, SSS’ total comprehensive income dropped to ₱21.5 billion in the first quarter from ₱34.1 billion a year ago.

Despite its lower net and comprehensive incomes, SSS’ total assets reached a new high of ₱1.3 trillion at end-March 2026 from ₱1.25 trillion at end-2025, its latest condensed statement of financial position showed.