GSIS to Pensioners: Renew Active Status to Ensure Receipt of Monthly Pension

The Government Service Insurance System (GSIS) is reminding its old-age and survivorship pensioners to renew their active status on their birth month to ensure the receipt of their monthly pension.

The System mandates all its pensioners to comply with this requirement, dubbed as the annual renewal of active status or ARAS, to avoid suspension of their pension.

To renew their active status, pensioners must bring their eCard Plus to the nearest GSIS servicing office or the nearest government establishment installed with a GSIS Wireless Automated Processing System kiosk or G-W@PS kiosk on their birth month.

Then, they must place their eCard Plus on the card reader of the kiosk. Afterwards, they must choose the “Annual Reporting” icon using the kiosk’s touch screen and then select any pre-registered finger. Finally, they must lightly scan their finger using the fingerprint scanner of the kiosk to complete the process which takes only a few seconds to accomplish.

“The ARAS requirement is a mechanism by which the pensioners themselves control their pension. Their continuous receipt of pension depends on their dutiful compliance with this requirement,” said GSIS President and General Manager Winston F. Garcia.

For the past decade, GSIS pensioners have remained the highest earning retirees among all pension funds in the country. The GSIS has continuously increased its pension since 2000, and has implemented another increase starting this January.

With this increase, the average monthly pension of GSIS pensioners has further increased to around P7,600, more than a hundred percent more than what other pension funds disburse.
Last December, the GSIS allotted P1.18 billion in Christmas cash gift to its pensioners, a growth of 27.6 percent from the P923 million budget allocated for the Christmas cash gift in 2007.

Meanwhile, for the first 10 months of 2008, the GSIS recorded an increase of 12 percent in the amount of claims and benefits it has disbursed to its pensioners to P28.6 billion from P25.5 billion during the same period of the previous year.

Christmas Cash Gift for GSIS Pensioners grew 27.6% to P1.18 billion this December 2008

The GSIS will give its pensioners a nice Yuletide present after the GSIS Board of Trustees approved the release of P1.18 billion worth of Christmas cash gift this December, representing a 27.6-percent growth from the P923 million budget allocated for the Christmas cash gift last year.

In fact, the amount has been steadily increasing the past few years. In 2006, the GSIS allotted P623 million for the cash gift and P587 million in 2005.

“We want to give our pensioners a nice holiday present. We know this cash gift will go a long way in making their Christmas a truly merry one,” said GSIS President, General Manager and concurrent Board Vice-Chair Winston F. Garcia.

Mr. Garcia attributed the robust growth in the amount of Christmas cash gift the GSIS has allotted for its pensioners to the consistent increase in the monthly pension the pension fund has been giving its pensioners.

In addition, the GSIS chief noted that with the number of government retirees eligible to receive pension from the GSIS increasing every year, it is deemed necessary that the total allotment for the Christmas cash gift be correspondingly increased as well.

Starting January 2009, the average monthly pension of GSIS pensioners will increase to around P7,800 from the current average of around P7,200.

The GSIS is the only pension system that has managed to consistently increase its pension yearly for the past decade. Since 2000, the GSIS has increased its monthly pension benefit by as much as 84 percent, a feat unmatched in the country.

Furthermore, Mr. Garcia pointed out that the healthy income growth the GSIS has been enjoying so far this year contributed significantly to the increase in the budget allotted for the Christmas cash gift.

For the first 11 months of the year, GSIS has already earned P43 billion in net income and is on pace to hit its P50-billion net income target for the full year.

The GSIS has also issued the guidelines for the cash gift entitlement. For pensioners whose 2007 Christmas cash gift is above P10,000, they shall be granted an amount equivalent to one-month current pension up to a maximum of P12,600. On the other hand, for pensioners whose 2007 Christmas cash gift is P10,000 and below, they shall be granted an amount equivalent to one-month current pension up to a maximum of P10,000.

Meanwhile, for pensioners who resumed their regular monthly pension after December 15, 2007 (after the five-year guaranteed period), they shall be granted an amount equivalent to one-month current pension up to a maximum of P10,000.

Those entitled to receive the Christmas cash gifts are old-age and retirement pensioners including joint-life retirees and disability pensioners under R.A. 8291, P.D. 1146 and R.A. 660 who are receiving their regular monthly pensions and are still qualified to their corresponding pensions and whose status as pensioners is still active as of December 15, 2008.

On the other hand, those not entitled to receive the cash gift are basic survivorship pensioners, dependent pensioners and joint life beneficiaries; retirees who received in advance their guaranteed pensions in the form of lump sums, who shall be resuming their regular monthly pensions after December 15, 2008; and new retirees in 2006 and 2008. They shall only be entitled to this benefit after five years from their retirement date.

Others who are not yet eligible to receive the cash gift this year include members who separated from the service in 2006 and 2008 before reaching the age of 60 and who started their regular monthly pension in 2006, 2007 and 2008. They shall only be entitled to the cash gift if they have been regular pensioners for at least five years; and pensioners under R.A. 7699 (Portability Law) who are receiving their regular pro-rata pension, including those who are receiving pro-rata pension as a result of the Premium-Based Policy.

Pensioners’ Annual Reporting a Cinch thru GWAPS

United States-based pensioners of the Government Service Insurance System (GSIS), the agency that provides social security benefits for past and present government employees in the Philippines, can soon ensure the continuation of their pension even while not making a single appearance to any GSIS office in the Philippines.

GSIS Pensioners who have migrated to the United States—or any other part of the world for that matter—can comply with the annual reporting requirement of the GSIS using only a machine called the GSIS Wireless Automated Processing System or GWAPS.

The GWAPS kiosks installed in the US is a product of various technologies such as radio frequency identification, biometrics and virtual private network to be used exclusively for the GSIS’ annual reporting requirement.

Before the GWAPS was put in place, GSIS pensioners—living in the Philippines or abroad—had to make personal appearances in any servicing GSIS office in the Philippines once a year, during their birth month, to ensure that they continue receiving their monthly pensions.

The GSIS said this requirement addresses the problems of fraudulent encashment of checks through misrepresentation and overpayment to deceased pensioners.

The GWAPS has now eliminated this need for personal appearances by employing biometrics. Instead of going to the Philippines, pensioners only need to have their fingerprints scanned and revalidated through the GWAPS.

Pensioners need to use a smart card called the eCard Plus to access the GWAPS.

Mr. Winston Garcia, GSIS President and General Manager, said the GWAPS is, by far, the most sophisticated and most efficient pensioner verification system in the world.

He said the GWAPS has also removed from Philippine Consular Offices the added burden of issuing special power of attorney (SPA) to pensioners, who used this document as a means to comply with the annual reporting requirement.

Consular Offices in the US also no longer have to process requests for a Certificate of Appearance, because the GWAPS is, in itself, an “electronic and online certification system.”
“In one fell swoop, the GWAPS has removed the need to fulfill a number of onerous requirements like personal appearance, the SPA and the Certificate of Appearance,” said Mr. Garcia.

The GSIS will put up the GWAPS and enroll pensioners to the eCard Plus in the Philippine Consular Offices in Los Angeles, San Francisco, New York, and Chicago.

The eCard Plus enrollment for pensioners in LA was held from February 21-23, 26-28 & March 1-2 and San Francisco on February 27-28, March 1-2 and March 5-9.

For New York, the enrollment was held from March 9, 10, 12 & 13 while enrollment in Chicago was held from March 14 to 16.

These enrollment centers will also accommodate pensioners living in other states or even in countries outside the US.

If the pensioner is from another country other than the United States, he must present an unexpired Philippine passport for his identity to be accurately validated against an official document during the initial enrollment process.

On the other hand, pensioners who live in the States must present an unexpired US Government-issued photo ID—like a driver’s license, military ID or US passport—or their unexpired Philippine passport during the enrollment.

Aside from providing access to the GWAPS, the eCard Plus also functions as an ATM card wherein pensioners can receive their monthly pension in the currency of the country they are in. In the United States for instance, their pension can be withdrawn in US dollars from any ATM under the Visa Plus network.