THE Government Service Insurance System (GSIS) said it has released the pensions ahead of schedule to help pensioners cope with the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) crisis.
GSIS said in a statement the monthly pension has been made available yesterday, April 2, instead of the usual crediting date of every 8th of the month.
“We already deposited their pension yesterday. So by today, April 2, all our pensioners should be able to receive it,” Rolando Macasaet, GSIS president and general manager, said yesterday.
“We know that most of our retirees rely on their pension for their daily upkeep and maintenance medicines. We hope that this will somehow help ease the burden of our senior citizens during the crisis,” he added.
Macasaet said GSIS has allotted P5.7 billion for the monthly pension of some 511,000 pensioners nationwide.
GSIS releases the monthly pension electronically through the pensioners’ eCard or UMID card which are issued by either the Union Bank of the Philippines or Land Bank of the Philippines. Pensioners may withdraw the cash from the nearest automated teller machine.
“The early release of pension is one of the several pro-active measures we are taking to help our pensioners cope with the COVID-19 crisis” Macasaet said.
Last week, GSIS extended the deadline for the Annual Pensioners Information Revalidation to May 15, 2020.
This means that all old-age and survivorship pensioners born in March and April do not need to personally report to GSIS during their birth months.
They may instead renew their active status on May 15, 2020.
“We do not want to expose our pensioners to any unnecessary risk, especially in light of reports that elderly people are the ones highly vulnerable to the COVID-19 virus. We want them to stay home for the time being,” Macasaet said.
Under normal circumstances, all old-age and survivorship pensioners are required to personally report to any GSIS office or through the GSIS kiosk during their birth month to continue receiving their pension.
Pensioners residing abroad can revalidate their status via Skype.
