The Social Security System on Thursday said unremitted members’ contributions from delinquent employers went down by 40 percent in 2023.
SSS president and chief executive officer Rolando Macasaet credited the agency’s Run After Contribution Evaders (RACE).
“Our RACE campaign must be working,” he said.
The uncollected contributions in 2022 stood at P92 billion, but SSS had successfully lowered it by 39 percent to P56 billion in 2023 by aggressively pursuing delinquent employers and continuously updating employer records.
Macasaet said they were encouraged by a Supreme Court decision upholding the agency’s right to take legal action against employers for being remiss in settling their contribution delinquencies.
In 2022, the Commission on Audit flagged the SSS for its failure to collect over P92 billion from half a million delinquent employers.
According to state auditors, 466,881 employers did not remit P92.49 billion in premium contributions, penalty and damages.
Macasaet said the SSS filed cases in court against 2,422 errant employers, majority of which opted to settle their delinquencies either through full payment or via installment schemes, resulting in a record-high collection of P1.37 billion in 2023 from P1.15 billion in 2022.
He ordered all SSS branch offices nationwide to carry out RACE campaigns in their areas.
In March, the Supreme Court upheld the implementation of the RACE campaign, rejecting an appeal filed by a real/estate company, which was found by a lower court to have failed to remit employee contributions to the SSS on time.
In a seven-page resolution, the High Court’s Second Division upheld a decision of the Court of Appeals against RGV Real Estate Center Inc. for violating the Social Security Law for failure to remit contributions.