By Shane F. Velasco
CITY OF MALOLOS, Bulacan (PIA) — The Social Security System (SSS) has launched the Barangay and other Offsite e-centers Online Services Training (B.O.O.S.T.) Program to improve collection efforts and provide easier access to benefits for members in Bulacan’s outskirts.
SSS Luzon Central 2 Division Vice President Gloria Corazon Andrada said this is an initiative to help their members to pay contributions and avail their benefits claims without going to the branches.
Three pilot barangays under the SSS Malolos branch have signed a Memorandum of Agreement to serve as offsite e-centers, including barangays Bulihan and Santisima Trinidad in the City of Malolos, and Malis in Guiguinto.
Through these facilities, members can secure an SS number, pay monthly contributions, and process claims for seven major benefits: maternity, unemployment, retirement, sickness, disability, death, and funeral.
Partners barangays will receive a four to six percent service fee per transaction, which Andrada noted will also help increase local revenue.
SSS Malolos Branch Head Venice Alonzo encouraged other barangays to join the program to extend the same services to their constituents.
SSS Senior Vice President Antonio Argabioso also reminded delinquent members that the activation of the offsite e-centers does not allow retroactive payment of contributions for private employees and self-employed workers, except in the case of farmers and fisherfolk who are permitted up to one year of retroactive payment due to seasonal income and weather-related challenges.
Argabioso added that pensioners may also benefit from these centers, particularly once the multi-year pension increase approved by the Social Security Commission takes effect from 2025 to 2027, as directed by President Ferdinand R. Marcos Jr. under the Social Security Act of 2018.
The increase will be implemented in three tranches starting September 2025, with retirement and disability pensioners receiving a 10 percent increase, and death or survivor pensioners receiving a five percent increase. (MJSC/SFV, PIA Region 3-Bulacan)
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