This article is a comprehensive guide for expecting mothers who want to reimburse their Social Security System (SSS) Maternity Benefits but isn’t quite sure how to go on about it. The SSS Maternity Benefits is a very advantageous thing to avail especially for the preparation of the birth of a new family member. For the guaranteed success of availing the SSS Maternity Benefits, it is important to follow the procedures the SSS has laid out to complete the requirements.
Before anything else, the SSS maternity benefits only apply to SSS members. Pregnant women who are not members or are only about to get their SSS membership cannot qualify to get SSS Maternity Benefits.
In the Philippines, a maternity benefit is a daily cash allowance granted to female members of organizations granting benefits such as the Social Security System (SSS). The female member would be unable to work due to childbirth or a miscarriage to which a daily allowance would be very useful to her current situation.
The qualified member to avail the SSS Maternity Benefit will be given financial benefits equivalent to 100 percent of their averaged daily salary credit and depending on the type of delivery, multiplied by 60 days for women with a normal delivery or a miscarriage, and multiplied for 78 days for women who have a cesarean section delivery.
For women with normal delivery, they will be given 60 days of maternity leave while women with a cesarean section delivery will be given 78 days of maternity leave.
In order to be a qualified member to avail the SSS Maternity Benefits the members should:
- Be female
- Has paid at least three (3) monthly contributions within the 12 months preceding the semester of their childbirth or miscarriage
- If employed, they should have given the required notification of their pregnancy to their employer. If they are a voluntary member, self-employed, or separated from employment, they should directly notify the SSS through the nearest SSS office or online.
It’s important to note that the SSS Maternity Benefits will only be reimbursed to the qualified members for their first four (4) deliveries or miscarriages starting May 24, 1997, when the Social Security Act of 1997 first took effect.
To summarize, female SSS members qualified for Maternity Benefits must be monetarily contributing to the SSS for at least three months before their given due date, they first need to notify their employer if employed or notify the SSS directly or online if self-employed, a voluntary member, or separated from employment. The notification needs to be done by the SSS member during their first semester of pregnancy or as soon as they are aware of their pregnancy.
Notification Procedures
For employed members of the SSS, you should immediately inform their employer’s HR department about their pregnancy, preferably within the first 60 days of conception.
- You’ll have to fill out the required details in the SSS Maternity Notification Form you can get online.
- Obtain proof of your pregnancy which would normally be an ultrasound report from your doctor.
- Submit these two documents along with the required two valid IDs, usually a UMID ID card or SSS biometrics ID card. Both IDs should have your signature, photos, and date of birth.
- After submitting the required items above to your employer, it is now their responsibility to process your submitted pregnancy notification form and proof of pregnancy with the SSS.
For members who are self-employed, unemployed, or separated from employment, you can accomplish the maternity notification form and submit it along with the other required items directly to the nearest SSS office. The SSS maternity notification form must have a received date stamp on it along with a signature of the SSS personnel.
SSS Maternity Notification Form
Reimbursement Procedure
SSS members can either file their reimbursement forms in advance of their delivery date or after they have given birth, but it is generally recommended to complete their reimbursement forms and other requirements needed for the reimbursement of their SSS Maternity Benefits a month or two before the due date of delivery.
SSS Maternity Reimbursement Form
For Currently Employed Members
Members who are currently employed can submit the requirements to their company’s HR Department. The requirements are:
- Maternity Notification Form complete with stamp and signature of the SSS personnel
- Filled-out Maternity Reimbursement Form
- UMID ID card or SSS biometrics ID card or two (2) valid IDs both with signatures and at least one (1) with picture and date of birth.
- In order to ensure that the benefits will be directly received by the members, the authorized company representatives filing out the maternity benefits must present the member’s SSS digitized ID or E-6 acknowledgment stub with two valid IDs (at least with one photo) in addition to the need of the company representative’s presentation of their own SSS digitized ID and blue-card.
For Separated Members (who left their company during their pregnancy)
- Maternity Notification Form complete with stamp and signature of the SSS personnel
- Filled-out Maternity Reimbursement Form
- UMID ID card or SSS biometrics ID card or two (2) valid IDs both with signatures and at least one (1) with picture and date of birth.
- Certification from the last employer showing the effective date of separation from employment or notice of the company’s closure or strike. It can also be a certification from the Department of Labor and Employment showing that the employee or employer has a pending labor case.
- Certification ensuring that no payment has been made to the member prior to the separation from the company.
- The separated member can directly submit these requirements to the nearest SSS office.
For Self-employed or Voluntary Members
- Maternity Notification Form complete with stamp and signature of the SSS personnel
- Filled-out Maternity Reimbursement Form
- UMID ID card or SSS biometrics ID card or two (2) valid IDs both with signatures and at least one (1) with picture and date of birth.
- Self-employed or voluntary members can directly submit these requirements to the nearest SSS office.
After giving birth, your physician will fill up the Complete Obstetrician Form indicating the type of delivery you have undergone. You need to submit this to the SSS along with your hospital bill.
Additional Requirements:
There are additional requirements given by the SSS that you need to submit and these requirements depend on the type of delivery you had as well as unforeseen circumstances such as a miscarriage, stillbirth, or abortion. This can be classified as proof of birth or hospitalization required by the SSS for you to avail the maternity benefits.
- For a normal delivery – a certified true or authentic copy of the registered birth certificate of the child needs to be submitted. If the child died upon birth or was stillborn, submit instead a registered death or fetal death certificate.
- For a cesarean delivery – a certified true or authentic copy of the registered birth certificate of the child needs to be submitted as well as a certified true copy of the operating room record or surgical memorandum. You can get this certification from your hospital or doctor.
- For those who suffered a miscarriage or abortion
- For an incomplete abortion – submit an obstetrical history, with the number of pregnancy certified by the attending physician as well as a dilation and curettage (D&C) report.
- For a complete abortion – submit a pregnancy test taken before and after the abortion as well as an age of gestation and hydropathy report.
It is important to note that that you can file your claims at the nearest SSS office however the processing of these claims will be done at the SSS branch where the employer and employee’s records are based.
If you have submitted the SSS Maternity Reimbursement Form and other requirements before your delivery date, the first half of the allowance will be given to you prior to the delivery date of your child while the rest will be released a month or so after submitting the rest of the remaining reimbursement requirements.
If you’ve submitted the SSS Maternity Reimbursement Form and all the other reimbursement requirements after the birth of your child, you’ll receive the SSS maternity benefits 1 or 2 months after submitting all the required items.
SSS will also require you have a bank account under your name where they can deposit the reimbursed maternity benefits amount. Open a bank account on an accredited SSS bank if you do not have one already. They will also require you submit your latest deposit transaction to your bank account as proof that the account is valid.
This completes the steps that you need to take in order to get that reimbursement of maternity benefits from the SSS. I hope that you find this helpful in availing of your benefits and getting the support you need during your pregnancy and future child.
References:
How to Reimburse SSS Maternity Benefits. (2016, September 14). https://www.jbsolis.com/2016/09/how-to-reimburse-sss-maternity-benefits.html
Maternity Benefits (n.d.) Retrieved from https://www.sss.gov.ph/sss/appmanager/pages.jsp?page=maternityapplication
SSS Benefits: Application, Requirements & Computation (2016, July 3). Retrieved from http://sssanswers.com/sss-maternity-benefit/
SSS Maternity Benefits: Procedure for Claiming (2014, July) Retrieved from https://e-pinoyguide.blogspot.com/2014/07/sss-maternity-benefits-procedure-for.html
