SSS Maternity Reimbursement

Finally, I received my Maternity Reimbursement from SSS! Whoopee.

Before anything else, you should consider your sss contributions. If you are unsure, you can register online through http://www.sss.gov.ph

It is easier if you are enrolled because you can view your total contributions. Plus, you can see immediately if you qualify for a maternity benefit or not and how much you will receive, no computations needed.

The easiest status is being employed because all you need to do is fill out the forms. Then, it should be your HR’s job to process everything else. You should receive half of the amount before your maternity leave/before your delivery date and half of the amount after you give birth.

If you are either a voluntary or a separated member, you should have paid at least 3 monthly contributions within the 12 month period preceding the semester of your delivery.

If you got confused, let me tell you my experience ..

I gave birth November 2011, so my semester of contingency is from June 2011 to November 2011 . I did not have any contributions during those months because I am now a separated member. I resigned May 2011 so my last contribution was April 2011. It doesn’t matter because the important thing is you should have at least 3 months of contribution during the 12 month period before the semester of contingency. In my case, it was June 2010 to May 2011. I had contributions for the whole 12 month period because I was employed from December 2009 to May 2011.

I received P 30, 000 in cheque. Good thing no tax was deducted 🙂

You should pass your maternity notification or MAT 1 together with your pregnancy test or ultrasound report before your date of delivery. SSS says you should pass it within 60 days after your pregnancy. I think they might be lenient about this because I have a friend who passed it weeks before she gave birth but it was still accepted. In my case, I was already 4 months pregnant when I notified SSS.

After you give birth, you should pass your maternity reimbursement application or MAT 2. For normal delivery, you need the birth certificate of your child. Make sure it is the Certified True Copy that is registered to the Local Civil Registrar. I advise you photocopy it for future use  because SSS is going to take the original copy. That was my mistake so I had to go to the office of the Local Civil Registrar and go back to SSS. For Cesarean, include the Operating Room Record. Make sure it is certified by the hospital. Otherwise, SSS won’t accept it. For separated members like me, there are a lot more requirements so it took time before I completed mine because I did not know all about the requirements before. You should include your certificate of employment, your employer’s certification of a Non Advance Payment  of Maternity Benefit with the L501 ( your employer should know ), your OB History signed by your OB ( get the form from SSS), and a photocopy of your SSS ID. If you don’t have one (like me), you can file for your SSS ID and just photocopy the stub they will give you.

After passing all my requirements, I was told to go back after a month. I passed my requirements January 9, 2011. I went back February 10, 2011. SSS informed me that my cheque is already available. They gave me the cheque number. However, I passed my MAT 1 in SSS Diliman Quezon City Branch, but I am now in Davao City and I passed my MAT 2 and all the other requirements here. My cheque will be coming from Manila via post office so they are going to deliver my cheque via Philippine Post Office. And so I waited. Finally, my cheque was delivered February 21, almost 2 weeks after. So I encashed 30,000 pesos without tax through PNB. It will be 39,000 pesos if you underwent Cesarean, but it all depends on how much your salary or monthly contribution is. Again, you can check through SSS website for the computation.

I bought a camera for my baby as a gift 🙂

My advice to all the moms or future moms out there, you should get your maternity benefits because you pay your contributions and you deserve your reimbursement. The money is quite large and it will be a lot of help to you. Some of the money I will use to find a new job.

Good Luck to all the moms out there ! 🙂