Who Can Become Your SSS Beneficiary or Dependents?

Your beneficiaries or dependents as seen on your sss records are the rightful persons who will receive your sss benefits. SSS will give it to them in the form of a monthly pension or lumpsum payment when you passed away. This depends on their hierarchy or order of dependents based on the Social Security Act of 2018.

According to the Republic Act 11199, SSS follows 4 types of beneficiaries. These are the following: Primary Beneficiaries, Secondary Beneficiaries, Designated Beneficiaries, and Legal Heirs (tagapagmana).

You can see your list of sss beneficiaries on your SSS “Personal Record” document. You can update the list by filling out the SSS “Members Data Amendment” form at any sss branch. Alternatively, you can update it on your My.SSS website.

It is important that you update the beneficiaries on your sss records. So that when something wrong happens to you. The rightful person is the one who will receive the benefits coming from Social Security System.

For example, your status is “single” when you become an SSS member. Suppose to be your beneficiaries are your parents. After 5 years, you marry your special someone and have children. You have to update your beneficiaries and include in the list your legal spouse and your legitimate children. To ensure that they will receive the appropriate benefits.

In case you do not know, your SSS benefits are non-transferable. This means that sss will not give it to anyone other than the name of the person on your sss records.

To avoid any issues in the future. Preferably the persons that you will include on your list of beneficiaries are related to you by blood. Otherwise, if you input the name of other people such as your boyfriend /girlfriend. SSS will honor it and will exert effort to find that person to give them the right SSS benefits. This means that your next of kin will not receive a centavo.

List of Beneficiaries who can Receive SSS Benefits

There are 4 types of SSS beneficiaries. The primary beneficiaries are the ones who can receive a monthly sss pension provided they are eligible. The other 3 types of beneficiaries will receive lumpsum amounts only.

Primary Beneficiaries

The Legal Spouse of the sss member. There should be documents such as marriage contracts for verification.

Legitimate Dependent, Legitimated Dependents, Legally Adopted (should provide adoption papers or court order), and Illegitimate Dependent Children as long as the SSS members acknowledged them.

SSS will give the monthly pension to these Primary beneficiaries if they meet certain conditions. Such as if legitimate and illegitimate children of the member are still below 21 years old.

However, even though the children are below 21 years old. If they get married early or starts working. They will no longer receive dependents’ pensions because they are now capable of earning for themselves.

Meanwhile, when the legal spouse of the deceased member got married, or have a live-in partner, or have a boyfriend/girlfriend. SSS will also stop the monthly pension to the legal spouse.

Secondary Beneficiaries

If the SSS member is single he/she can choose both her mother and father as secondary beneficiaries. Provided the parents need support from the sss member. The member needs to create an affidavit of support document.

Designated Beneficiaries

Designated beneficiaries are any other person designated by the member as stated on their records with SSS. You can see your list of beneficiaries in your various SSS forms.

When the members are single, have no legal spouse, no children and their parents are deceased. They can also designate nephew, niece, uncle, or auntie as beneficiaries.

It is preferable that members designate beneficiaries who are blood-related to them so their relatives will enjoy the fruits of their monthly contributions in SSS.

Legal Heirs

The legal heirs or “tagapagmana” are based on the law of succession under the Family Code of the Philippines. With reference to the latter, SSS will select the next of kin who will receive the sss benefits of the member.

Conclusion

As an SSS member, it is our responsibility to update the list of beneficiaries or dependents in the SSS database. Especially when we reach special milestones in our lives such as marrying a special someone or having children.

Read also: How to Update SSS Member Information Online in 3 Minutes

As we all know, life is unpredictable. We never know what will happen in the future. So to avoid any issues or delays on the benefits for our sss dependents we should update our beneficiaries the soonest. Consider it as a gift to your loved ones.