SSS members secure future, 

Earn benefits, retirement 

TAGBILARAN CITY, Bohol, July 27 (PIA)—For a setting aside a mere 3.63% of one’s monthly salary which is paid in monthly contributions to the Social Security System (SSS), one can earn retirement benefits, but retirement is just not about all of it. 

According to the SSS through Bohol Officer In Charge Aleta Basubas, aside from the monthly pension most people in the private sector are looking forward to for their monthly contributions, there are still more benefits from the fund that you probably did not know. 

The SSS offers sickness benefits. 

Getting sick or injured can never be more stressing when you are the breadwinner. But SSS can help through a daily cash allowance for the number of days you are absent. 

However, SSS clarifies: this applies if you are at home or in a hospital for at least four days and have consumed all company allowable leaves, gets a doctor’s certification and has contributed at least three months within the last 12 months, Basubas said. 

How much would one get? About 90% of the daily salary credit, that is what SSS said. 

Then the SSS also gives maternity benefits. 

Birthing mothers who can’t work yet, or those who had miscarriage may get the SSS daily cash allowance equal to 100% of the member’s average daily salary credit for 60 days for normal births or 78 days for ceasarian deliveries. 

This can be had however, as long as the claimant has put in at least three-month’s worth of SSS contributions within the last 12 months. 

And SSS members can have disability benefits too. 

If one has partial or totally disability, he can get an SSS’s disability benefit, and can choose whether it is through a monthly pension or a lump sum amount, SSS through their information officer Michael Ian Mission explained. 

The benefit however can only be had by members who had at least a month’s contribution before the semester of accident leading to disability. 

Members who had 36 monthly contributions at least, qualify for a monthly disability pension ranging from P1, 000 to P2, 400, depending on you years of service and another P500 monthly supplemental allowance, Mission added. 

On the other hand, SSS also implements the government’s employees compensation program, which is a cash benefit for employees who became sick or injured due to work-related causes leading to permanent disability or death. 

However, if the accident or injury was due to intoxication, negligence, or self-harm, the benefit is voided. 

The benefit for the qualified includes medical services, supplies, and rehabilitation services and can be claimed together with other SSS benefits. 

And for primary beneficiaries of a dead SSS member, one can even claim monthly death pension, as long as the member had 36 monthly contributions. 

By primary beneficiary, SSS means a spouse and dependent children, who can get pensions from P1,000 to P2,400 depending in the deceased years of service, a 13th month pension and for dependent minor children, hey get P100 at least or 10% of the member’s supposed pension. 

And the SSS also provides for a funeral cash benefit to the one who paid for the burial expenses of a deceased SSS member, according to Basubas. 

The benefit which is automatic for members who are covered by their employees, can be had by any member who has at least a contribution, if membership is voluntary or self-employed or OFW. 

The cash benefit can go as high as P20,000 to P40,000, based on the member’s contributions and years of service. 

And there is the salary loan. 

In times of tight financial binds, SSS members can get short-term credit, with only at least six months of contributions within the last 12 months, depending on number of contributions. 

As to the amount, the SSS computes the average salary credits of the member in the last 12 months, says the SSS. 

All of these, to a member who regularly pays his contributions, which is only a little over 3.63% while his employer pays the 7.37% for him to earn these benefits. (rahc/PIA-7/Bohol) 

SSS Bohol OIC Aleta Basubas details the SSS benefits that a member can also get apart from the retirement he can claim upon his golden years. For a mere 3.63% deducted from a worker’s salary, and his employer paying for 7.37%, the worker can avail of benefits that include sickness, maternity, disability, employee compensation, death, funeral and salary loans. (rahc/PIA-7/Bohol) 

FEATURE 

‘Green thumbing’ for food, 

nutrition on the fingertips 

TAGBILARAN CITY, Bohol, July 27 (PIA)—As the lure of cities continue, shrinking urban space, increasing urban poverty, consequent food insecurity and malnutrition that goes with it and the need for aesthetics in ornamental plants, what would you do? 

Here, over ornamentals, agriculturists would rather push for food gardening in the urban setting to respond to the issue. 

In the Philippines, there is a continuous movement of the people from the rural to urban areas. 

But just as efforts to slow down the exodus are starting to get in place, urbanization continues, heightening urban poverty, food insecurity which breeds a host of complex social problems, according to the Agricultural Training Institute in Region 7 (ATI-7), now based in Bohol. 

But, ATI sees urban agriculture as a solution. 

Urban agriculture offers a complementary strategy to counter the rise of urban poverty and food insecurity, according to the ATI in Bohol. 

Urban agriculture transforms cities to food generators instead of just consumers of food and other agricultural products, ATI through its Information Services Section said. 

When cities become producers, they contribute to sustainability, improved health and nutrition and poverty alleviation, ATI said. 

The ATI proposal also gets closely linked with the National Nutrition Council’s call to make growing plans as a habit, to harvest better nutrition. 

In July when the country celebrates Nutrition month, the NNC picked “Ugaliin’g magtanin; sapat na Nutrisyon ay aanihin,” as guiding theme. 

Urban gardening, also the more socially acceptable term for agriculture, means growing plants and the raising animals within and around cities by integrating them into the urban economic and ecological system. 

In fact, in the age of recycling, urban gardeners have presented recycled materials as perfect ideas for planters, seed bed and compost. 

Empty plastic bottles, toilet paper rolls, egg trays, paper coffee cups, discarded tires, empty pallets, plastic bags, even egg shells filled with compost from kitchen left-overs, can grow vegetables for food, agriculturists said. 

Before starting a garden, ATI advised: Identify the purpose if the garden and determine the available spaces for plants or for plant containers. 

Then, determine the right kind or type of vegetables to be raised, so one can suit up and find the right containers. 

And then, one needs to prepare a seed box for growing seedlings, ATI said. 

And if one needs to know more about how to do urban gardening and learn of some ideas, ATI said they just have the perfect module for that. 

A course called Basics in Urban Gardening is available from www.e-extension.com/elearning, according to Doris Isabelle Racho, ATI Information Officer. 

At the current cost of living in Tagbilaran and faced with the challenge of food security and care for the environment and its protection, growing a garden in the city might just be a good hobby which can potentially help one save and eat better food. (rahc/PIA-7/Bohol) 

PET bottles become perfect containers for herbs and vegetables, making sure that families can save money allocated for food, get better fresher food and help put up recyclable materials to good use. (PIABohol/photo: hawk-haven.com)