SSS Senior Citizen Pensioners Suffering from Stopped and Delayed Pensions.

     Thousands or hundreds of thousands of Social Security System (SSS) Senior citizen pensioners are now complaining and suffering needlessly of cut-off, stopped and delayed monthly allowances. These elderly people who are at the age of 60, 70, 80 and 90 years old who failed to present themselves to their designated SSS branches or bank branches to show proof that they are still alive and kicking to receive their monthly pension have suddenly ceased receiving their monthly allowances. The SSS made these old, slow, fragile and sickly pensioners to personally report to purge and cleanse the list of retirees and to finally weed out the already deceased or "ghost" members whose crooked relatives or dependents are still claiming their monthly benefits. It was a good idea to get rid of the illegal claimants but the whole operation ended up badly and made thousands of legitimate old people suffer and are now in dire straits.

     The SSS issued notices to all its senior citizen pensioners to report to the banks where they regularly get their allowances before August 30, 2012 and the letters were supposed to be delivered by the Philippine Postal Office (PhilPost) . That's where the problem started, that's where the shit hit the fan! You see, the PhilPost did not deliver all of the notices to the specified pensioners; as a matter of fact, hundreds of thousands of SSS pensioners never got their notices. This resulted in the hundreds of thousands of senior citizens that failed to report to their banks and consequently, their pension were stopped by the SSS. These old folks never got their allowances starting August 30. 2012 and up to this moment it is still in limbo. Most of the affected senior citizens immediately reported to the SSS branches while some had to be in wheelchairs and even carried by their close relatives after suffering from strokes, diabetes and for being too old. You can just imagine the hardships that they have to go through. The SSS authorities after examining and finding out that these are the legitimate pensioners, it was promised and assured that their allowances will resume after 1 month of delay.

     The SSS guarantee of 1 month delay never materialized and bank officials said that it will take SSS about 3 months before it can reinstate the delayed benefits. These people are old and fragile; they need their allowances to buy their food, medicine and other basic needs.Most of these old folks are not rich, some are in poverty and to deny them their hard earned right is simply criminal! These legitimate, genuine, rightful and alive pensioners have already proven to the SSS that they are still breathing so why the 3 month long delay in restoring their benefits? Delay due to paperwork? That is simply unacceptable!!!

     It is not the fault of these pensioners that they did not receive their notices from PhilPost hence it is not their fault why they failed to show up at their banks. It is the PhilPost's duty to deliver these notices come hell or high water and although not all letters can be delivered 100%; hundreds of thousands of undelivered mail is simply unacceptable! Let's face it, SSS and PhilPost screwed up big time and the old folks are the ones needlessly suffering! This is a big blunder for SSS and PhilPost yet no media outfit aired this news or even bothered to help these people get their allowances faster. Are old people in this country indispensable and unimportant? Do we just forget and dump our old parents and grandparents to just wither and die on their own? Don't we all have old folks in our families? Is it okay to treat them this way?

     The SSS cannot wash its hands from this gargantuan and highly destructive mistake, the SSS should have engaged the advertising services of all major print, radio and TV media out there. The SSS should have repeatedly aired this notice many months in advance before the August 30, 2012 deadline, it should not have relied solely on PhilPost to do its job in delivering those notices. The SSS should also immediately reinstate the pension of the old folks that have already reported to their offices, it should not take 3 long months to restore it. These people are in their golden years, they don't have much time left hence they should not be treated like garbage. Their pension were the monthly contributions that they gave SSS during their young and productive years, it is through the members' contribution that made SSS work. As long as these people are alive and breathing, nobody has the right to delay, stop or take that pension away from them!!!