Dubai: The Philippines' Social Security Security (SSS) has extended the grace period for waiving penalties under its loan restructuring program for delinquent borrowers till April 1, 2019.
The original deadline was set today, October 1, 2018.
The move was announced by the state-owned fund in a Facebook post.
“We are glad to announce that the second loan restructuring program with penalty condonation will be extended for another six months to accommodate more members who have outstanding short-term obligations with the SSS,” the state-run pension fund’s president and chief executive Emmanuel F. Dooc said in a statement Friday.
The "amnesty", originally offered for six months, saw long queues among delinquent overseas Filipino worker-borrowers in Dubai.
#Pinoy stories
More than 250,000 members of the state-run pension fund, many of them OFWs, are expected to benefit from the loan restructuring programme (LRP), which waives penalties and fines for members who did not pay on time.
For September alone, more than 500 delinquent SSS members in Dubai had availed of the amnesty, according to Mark Roue Oliva, SSS Representative in Dubai and the Northern Emirates.
Read more:
Guide: How much you can save from loan amnesty
Filipinos are hard-working people
Rise of remittances by Filipino exparts in UAE
The loan penalties condonation is aimed to rope in delinquent member-borrowers to regularise their status with the pension fund by settling unpaid loans, without the added pain of high interest.
It's not the first time the SSS has offered such restructing to delinquent members.
The extended offer will help borrowers regularise their status with the 64-year-old state-owned pension fund.
Where can I apply for this SSS loan restructuring?
Check with the right staff at the SSS branch you visit. If you're in Dubai or the Northern Emirates, better send an email first via dubai@sss.gov.ph with your details (name, SSS number, loan amount) to know the requirements in applying for this LRP.
There's an SSS office within the Philippine Consulate General in Dubai.
The SSS office in the Philippine Embassy in Abu Dhabi, UAE.
Map shows SSS headquarters in Quezon City, Manila, Philippines
