Quezon City Representative and House Assistant Majority Leader Precious Castelo, on Sunday appealed to the Social Security System to resolve the delay and confusion on the payment of pension benefits.
She made the appeal after watching a news report which showed pensioners in their 70s queueing at the SSS members’ assistance center in Quezon City to inquire about their delayed retirement pension.
Only a few employees attended to the inquiries of the elders since SSS was on a skeletal work amid the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVUD-19) pandemic, she said.
“These are senior citizens should be staying home. By going out to inquire about their pension, they are exposing themselves to the infections,” she said.
“Our elderly need their monthly benefit, which is barely enough for their medicines,” she said/
She said the television report quoted the agency spokesman saying that the new schedule was based on the birthday of the pensioners, who were required to register online or at any SSS office, adding that failure to do so could result in the suspension of their pensions.
“Again, why introduce these changes amid the pandemic even if the objective is to save money by discarding the practice of issuing checks? Why expose our senior citizen-retirees to health and physical risks unnecessarily?” Castelo asked.
She called on the SSS to return to its old payment system of depositing pensions in banks.