A member of SSS who is pregnant should know how to compute her SSS maternity benefit based on her monthly contributions. Just to clear things up, this is not some kind of a loan or something you have to pay in the future, it is entirely a benefit of being a Social Security System member.
Well, if you are pregnant now, congratulations! Perhaps, you are slowly preparing for your child’s needs when you give birth. That’s why, it is important that you know about your expected SSS maternity benefit you can claim from SSS. It would be a great aid or financial support to pay for hospital bills or your child’s short-term needs.
If you are currently employed, the two-month leave or more that you’ll avail when you are about to give birth including those rest days may affect your financial capability. Even though you have probably prepared for these days. This is where the good thing comes in, the SSS maternity benefit.
What is a SSS maternity benefit?
The SSS Maternity Benefit serves as a cash allowance paid in full to those female members of SSS who are unable to work or make a living because of childbirth or miscarriage.
Who are qualified for SSS maternity benefit?
In the first place, only female members who are employed, self-employed and voluntary are the one’s entitled for a maternity benefit. Moreover, there are other conditions that must be met to be qualified:
- You must have paid at least 3 monthly contributions within the 12-month period before the “semester” of your childbirth or miscarriage.
- When your pregnancy is confirmed, you must have notified your HR if you are employed or SSS Office if you are separated from employment, self-employed or voluntary member. Failure to process the notification requirement may result to the denial of your maternity benefit application.
How much do you get for a maternity benefit?
This is the most significant question, so how much do you really get as a maternity benefit? To put it simply, if you have been working on your current company within years now, you should receive an amount equivalent to your 2-month salary (60 days) for normal delivery/miscarriage/ectopic pregnancy without operation/hydatidiform mole.
On the other hand, you shall receive an amount equivalent to your 78 daily salary for caesarean section delivery/ectopic pregnancy with operation.
However, if you are switching jobs and salary changes in the past months, the amount you should get is the average of your daily salary credit multiplied by 60 days or 78 days based on given conditions as written above.
If you are earning more about ₱1,000 or more a day, and you are thinking now a huge amount you may get. Sorry to blow your bubble but that’s probably not going to happen.
It is because the SSS monthly salary credit is capped at ₱16,000. So if you divide that amount to 30 days, that’s ₱533.33. That would be the highest average daily salary credit.
How to Compute SSS Maternity Benefit?
Step 1. Determine the semester of your delivery.
So first let’s define what is a quarter and what is a semester.
A quarter refers to the 3 consecutive months of the year ending in March, June, September and December. So there are 4 quarters which are:
- 1st Quarter: January, February and March
- 2nd Quarter: April, May and June
- 3rd Quarter: July, August and September
- 4th Quarter: October, November and December
A semester means 2 consecutive quarters. These are the following:
- 1st and 2nd Quarter
- 2nd and 3rd Quarter
- 3rd and 4th Quarter
- 4th and 1st Quarter
To determine the semester of your delivery, SSS term for it is “semester of contingency“, see to it that you have an estimated month of delivery. Then, check the quarter where it belongs, then include the quarter before it to make it as 1 semester.
So lets take an example to elaborate this. Let’s say you are going to give birth on June. It belongs to the 2nd Quarter and before that is the 1st Quarter, that’s 2 consecutive quarters which makes it 1 semester. So the semester of your delivery belongs 1st Quarter (January, February and March) and 2nd Quarter (April, May and June).
Another one, if your expected delivery is the month of August, the semester of contingency would be the 3rd Quarter and the 2nd Quarter.
Last example, if the delivery is on January, the semester of contingency would be the 1st and 4th Quarter.
Step 2. Count 12 months backwards starting from the month before the semester of contingency.
Now that you have determined your semester of contingency, the next step is to count 12 months before that.
So just like in the first example, if your expected delivery is on June 2019, then your “semester of contingency” belongs to the 2nd and 1st Quarter. This makes January as the end month of our computation.
Count 12 months before January 2019. That would be:
- December 2018
- November 2018
- October 2018
- September 2018
- August 2018
- July 2018
- June 2018
- May 2018
- April 2018
- March 2018
- February 2018
- January 2018
Step 3. Check the 6 highest monthly salary credits among the 12 monthly contributions.
So let’s say that there are 6 months wherein your salary credit is at ₱16,000. That’s the highest monthly salary credit determined by SSS. Even when you got ₱30,000 or ₱80,000 monthly salary, since ₱16,000 is the cap, you’ll still contribute the same maximum contribution pinned at ₱1,790.
- December 2018 = ₱16,000
- November 2018 = ₱16,000
- October 2018 = ₱16,000
- September 2018 = ₱16,000
- August 2018 = ₱14,000
- July 2018 = ₱12,500
- June 2018 = ₱12,500
- May 2018 = ₱12,500
- April 2018 = ₱12,500
- March 2018 = ₱12,500
- February 2018 = ₱16,000
- January 2018 = ₱16,000
A Salary Credit is directly related to the salary you are receiving per month. If you are not familiar about it and you may want to check out the SSS Contribution Table 2018.
Step 4. Add the 6 highest monthly salary credits and divide it by 180 to get the average daily salary credit.
Given that there are 6 months you reached the highest monthly salary credit worth ₱16,000. Add those 6-highest and divide it by 180. In 6 months, there are 180 days. So to get the average daily salary credit for that 6 months, you need to divide it by 180 days.
Total 6-Monthly Salary Credit: add 6 months highest salary credits. (see sample contributions on Step 3)
= ₱16,000 (January)+ ₱16,000 (February) + ₱16,000 (September) + ₱16,000 (October) + ₱16,000 (November) + ₱16,000 (December)
= ₱96,000
Average Daily Salary Credit: divide the total 6-month salary credit by 180 days.
= ₱96,000 / 180 days
= ₱533.33 per day
6. To compute your SSS Maternity Benefit for normal delivery, multiply the daily salary credit by 60 days. If its caesarean case, multiply it by 78 days.
SSS Maternity Benefit Normal Delivery: average daily salary credit multiplied by 60 days.
= ₱533.33 x 60 days
= ₱31,999.80
SSS Maternity Benefit Caesarian Section Delivery: average daily salary credit multiplied by 78 days.
= ₱533.33 x 78 days
= ₱41,599.74
Related SSS Guides:
So that’s the step by step guide on how to compute your SSS Maternity Benefit based on your monthly contributions. Let us know your thoughts about this in the comment section.
