SSS

UNEMPLOYMENT
BENEFIT
ExpreSSS e-Learning (ExSSSeL)
C O N T E N T S
• Definition of Unemployment Benefit
• Eligibility Requirements
• Amount of Benefit
• Prescriptive Period
• Limitations
• Application and Payment of Benefit
• Documentary Requirements
• SSS Circulars
 UNEMPLOYMENT
BENEFIT
- cash benefit granted to covered employees, including Kasambahays, and Overseas
Filipino Workers (OFWs) who are involuntarily separated from employment.
- the newest SS benefit introduced by Republic Act No. 11199, otherwise known as
the Social Security Act of 2018, which took effect on 05 March 2019.
Eligibility Requirements
1. The member should not be over 60 years of age at the time of involuntary
separation. EXCEPTION: Mineworkers and racehorse jockeys must not be
over 50 and 55 years old, respectively.
2. The member has paid at least 36 monthly contributions, 12 months of
which should be in the 18-month period immediately preceding the month
of involuntary separation.
3. The member has no settled unemployment benefit within the last three
years prior to the date of involuntary separation.
Eligibility Requirements
4. The employment of the member has been terminated involuntarily due to any of the following:
a) Installation of labor-saving devices
b) Retrenchment or downsizing
c) Redundancy
d) Cessation of operation
e) Disease or illness, prohibiting you from performing job duties or compromising your co-employees’
health as per law
f) Economic downturn (job loss due to economic recession or depression)Natural or man-made
disasters/calamities
Eligibility Requirements
g) OR the member quit his/her job without notice to the employer (ER) due
to any of the following reasons:
i. Grave insult by the ER or his/her representative
ii. Inhumane and unbreakable treatment by the ER or his/her
representative
iii. Commission of a crime or offense to the member or the immediate
members of his/her family by the ER or his/her representative
Eligibility Requirements
• However, an employee shall not be qualified to receive unemployment benefit if he/she has
been involuntarily separated from employment due to just causes under Article 297 (282) of
P.D. No. 442 or the Labor Code of the Philippines, as amended, covering any of the following
act/s by the employee:
• Serious misconduct;
• Willful disobedience to lawful orders;
• Gross and habitual neglect of duties;
• Fraud or will breach of trust/loss of confidence;
• Commission of a crime or offense; or
• Analogous cases like abandonment, gross inefficiency, disloyalty/conflict of
interest/dishonesty.
• Employees under the 'No Work No Pay' scheme are not qualified for the Unemployment
Benefit
Computation of the Benefit
Computation of the Benefit
Prescription Period
• Claims for unemployment benefit shall be filed within one year
from the date of involuntary separation.
• Unemployment Benefit claims shall not be denied if the one-year
deadline for filing thereof falls on 05 March 2020 until the last
day of the Enhanced Community Quarantine (ECQ)/General
Community Quarantine (GCQ)
Limitations to the Grant of
Unemployment Benefit
1. A covered employee who is involuntarily separated can only claim
unemployment benefit once every three years starting from the
date of involuntary separation.
2. In case of concurrence of two or more compensable contingencies
within the same compensable period, only the highest benefit
shall be paid.
Limitations to the Grant of
Unemployment Benefit
3. For the following cases, the settled unemployment benefit shall be deducted, either in partial or full,
from the future benefit/s of the member –
a) Overlapping benefit/s;
b) When the involuntarily separated employee files a case/complaint against his/her employer and the
resolution thereof showed:
• that the reason for termination was due to just cause/s under Article 297 (282) of P.D. No. 442 of
the Labor Code of the Philippines, as amended; or
• that the case/complaint resulted in reinstatement of the involuntarily separated employee with
payment of back wages.
• When the filing, processing, or payment involves misrepresentation, fraud, or false claims; and
• When the employee is rehired or re-employed within the compensable period.
• The authority to deduct shall be affirmed by the member in the Unemployment Benefit Application.
Application & Payment of Benefit
• The benefit shall be credited to the member’s:
• SSS UMID card enrolled as ATM (UMID-ATM card).
• Union Bank of the Philippines (UBP) Quick Card Account.
• Thru the banks under PESONet.
Application & Payment of Benefit
Documentary Requirements
• Certification establishing the nature and date of involuntary separation from
DOLE thru its Regional Offices and Philippine Overseas Labor Offices (POLO)
with any of the following attachments, whichever is applicable:
a) Notice of Termination from ER; or
b) Affidavit of Termination of Employment.

• The reasons for involuntary separation of OFWs shall be determined by DOLE

• This benefit covers contingencies occurring on or after 05 March 2019 only.

SSS Circulars Related to Unemployment
Benefit
• Circular 2020-008-b Amendment to Circular No. 2020-008 dated
31 March 2020 on the extension of the period of filing
Unemployment Benefit Claim
• Circular 2020-014 Online Filing of Unemployment Benefit Claim
through the SSS website
• Circular 2019-011 Guidelines on the Payment of Unemployment
Insurance or Involuntary Separation Benefit